
Class 
Book 






Copyright N'' 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



TOWN OF AELINGTON 

PAST AND PRESENT 



A NARRATIVE OF LARGER 
EVENTS AND IMPORTANT 
CHANGES IN THE VILLAGE 
PRECINCT AND TOWN FROM 

1637 TO 190 7 



CHAllLES S. PARKER 



ARLINGTON 

C. S. PARKER & SON, PUBLISHERS 

1907 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDles Received 
MAY 21 I90f 

.Copynpht Entry 

/mayi / f. / 90J 

CLASS (X, XXc, No. 

/ 7 ^^X '-h 

COPY B. 



CorvRiGHT, 1907 
By CHARLES S. PARKER 



Stanbope press 



. O I L S O N 
BOSTON. 



COMPANY 
U. S. A. 



Prcpdrcd (ni(l ptihlislied hi/ 
iiiitlinrUij (if tin- ('iniiiuittoc 
of tJie Town of Arliiujfini 
(ippolnteil to nidkc iirriiiiijc- 
hipntx fur till' celclirdtioii of 
the one liinidrfdth auiiivcrsiiry 
of the incorporation of the 
town. ■ 



PREFACE 



In September of last year I accepted a proposition from a 
sub-committee of the general committee chosen by the Town 
of Arlington having charge of the celebration of the centen- 
nial anniversary of the to\\n's incorporation. It was to the 
effect that I should assume the duty of preparing for the printer 
and superintend the issuing from the press, in suitable book 
form, the matter filling the pages of this volume. The details 
of the transaction met the approval of the general committee. 

The larger share of the material used in the construction of 
the narrative portion of this " Town of Arlington Past and 
Present," was gathered piece-meal during the past thirty and 
more years of my residence in Arlington, but with no thought 
it would ultimately be used in this way. It has, however, proved 
a pleasant task, althf)ugh making greater demands upon my time 
than was anticipated. 

There has been one fixed purpose in ^•iew from the outset, — 
to magnify the name Arlington and, if possible, give to the town 
the place in history that is her legitimate right. The incidents 
named will be found true to the record, and it is hoped that 
they have been told in a clear and entertaining manner. 

Sketches of Arlington by Hon. James P. Parmenter and others, 
and the "History of Arlington" published by Mr. William R. 
Cutter in 1880, have been drawn from, by permission of the 
authors, in constructing the story of those earlier days when a 
few people owned great farms in what is now Arlington (then 
called Menotomy); also for that other period between 1739 and 
1807, when all that is now Arlington territory was a portion of 
the Northwest Precinct of Cambridge. Due credit is given in 
the succeeding pages to the parties named, where such matter 
is used, but it is eminently proper that in this formal way appre- 



6 Preface 

ciation of the value of the service they have rendered should 
be expressed. The courtesy of ^liss Edith Whittemore, custo- 
dian of papers and records stored with Arlington Historical 
Society, is also gratefully acknowledged. 

The labor of constructing a narrative out of the material con- 
tained in the several Avell preserved volumes filled with records 
made by town clerks, also by selectmen, during the one hun- 
dred years of the town's corporate life, has been facilitated and 
in fact made easy through the card catalogue system introduced 
l)y Thomas J. Robinson, the present town clerk. His help has 
been freely given whenever sought while tracing lines not always 
easily followed, and my appreciation of his courtesy is difficult 
to express in words. 

Through these means and from sources named, has been con- 
structed a narrative, telling how a small group of colonists 
obtaining grants of land in this territory in the early part of the 
seventeenth century has grown to what Arlington represents 
today in population, business enterprises and wealth. 

Arlington is, in extent of territory, one of the smaller towns 
of Middlesex County. It lies in the southeastern part of the 
County; is bovmded by Winchester and JMedford on the north, 
by Medford, Somerville and Cambridge on the east, by Belmont 
on the south and Lexington on the west. It is about three 
miles in length and two miles in width, with its Town Hall in 
almost the geographical center. The western part of the town 
is hilly, Arlington Heights and Turkey Hill (the former on the 
south and the latter the north side of Massachusetts avenue as 
the main thoroughfare is now named) being the more promi- 
nent elevations, while the eastern section is level. There are 
two ponds of considerable size — Mystic Pond along the north- 
ern boundary and Spy Pond on the southerly line. jMystic 
River forms a part of the northeastern boundary, and its tribu- 
tary, Alewife Brook, separates Arlington from Cambridge and 
Somerville. Mill Brook runs through the town from west to 
east for about two miles, and then turning to the north flows 
into Mystic Pond. 

The preceding paragraph from the pen of Judge Parmenter 



Preface 7 

(in his contribution to History of Middlesex County) describes 
the ArHngton of today, but not the boundaries of the town 
when incorporated in 1S()7. In 1842 the town gained a large 
block of territory from Charlestown. In 1850 a portion of this 
annexation was surrendered to be joined to portions of Woburn 
and Medford then taken to form the to^^n of Winchester. In 
1859 the town of Belmont was incorporated, and by that legisla- 
tive act Arlington lost more than a third of the acreage includerl 
in the bovmds named in the act of 1807 which created the town. 

To illustrate the gains and losses of territory as mentioned 
above, the accompanying picture or map, as any one sees fit to 
name it, has been prepared. It is copied from a large map of 
Arlington, marked off with colored lines to show these losses and 
gains, made by Engineer Henry 8. Adams, of Arlington, and 
u.sed to illustrate an historical paper, and afterwards presented to 
Arlington Historical Society. This copy was made in Arlington 
Engineering Department by Draughtsman George E. Ahem, 
under directioii of Supt. Robert W. Pond, and is their free-will 
offering to their fellow citizens. It not being possible to repro- 
duce colors used Ijy Mr. Adams in marking ofT divisions on 
his ma]), rings, dots, dashes, etc., have been substituted in this 
miniature reproduction, but are equally effective in accomplish- 
ing the purpose for which they are introduced. For some slight 
inaccuracies in lines, I am responsible. It was a plain picture, 
one to be taken at a glance, rather than a tracing of a survey of 
town boundaries, — a scientifically correct map, — that was 
asked for. This slight deviation in lines meant an immense 
saving of time, at no real loss in effectiveness in the picture. 
Supercritical critics must blame me, and not the draughtsman, 
for slightly technical errors, as in cases where it can be shown 
the lines vary the smallest fraction of an inch from those recorded 
in the town book. 

For the sectional jjlan followed in the make-up of this volume 
I am responsiljle. It was in response to the committee's invi- 
tation that Arlington clergymen and others prepai-ed special 
articles appended to the general history. In consequence the 
reader will rliscover breaks in the record of several decades which 



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8 Preface 

will require turning to another section of the volume to com- 
plete. The more full details which will there be found ought to 
prove ample compensation for this inconvenience. 

Frequently during the past few months the meaning of the 
word Menotomy has been asked. Every gazetteer and encyclo- 
paedia has been scanned in vain, and all that can be said is that 
Menotomy is probably an Indian name. Possibly it describes 
the natural features of the locality. It may be, however, that 
the sluggish stream forming the easterly boundary of the village 
of Menotomy was first so named, and later accepted by the 
people of Cambridge to designate the outlying territory. Most 
of the Indian names for sections of eastern Massachusetts have 
been analyzed by experts, and the derivation made plain. This 
has not been the case with ^lenotomy. The fact that early 
settlers invariably adopted the Indian names for the territory 
where they located, is the only basis discoverable for the claim 
that Menotomy is an Indian name. 

The purpose of some illustrations used in the following pages 
was to as far as possible show types of houses of succeeding 
generations, and availability has in tlie main been the deciding 
factor; certainly there has been no thought of discriminating 
for or against anything of historic value. To those who have 
so willingly loaned valuable originals, I return thanks. 

With this explanation regarding my connection with the pro- 
ject and hints as to its compilation, " Town of Arlington Past 
and Present" is offered for the consideration of my fellow-citizens. 

CHARLES S. PARKER. 
Arlington, March 1, 1907. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Adams Hoxjse, Built IGSO 99 

Addison Gage Mansion House 105 

Arlington Boat Club House 304 

Arlington Center in 1817 70 

Arlington House, Built 1826 97 

Arlington Town Hall, Built 1852 110 

Baptist Church, Built in 1790 220 

Baptist Church, Built 1902-3 223 

Bird's Eye View of Spy Pond 287 

Bit of Massachusetts Avenue 99 

Blake Homestead 91 

Building First Used by the Baptists as a Church 219 

Cooke, Rev. Samltel 42 

Corner Massachusetts Avenue and Mystic Street 98 

Corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Pleasant Street .... 93 

Cotting Academy, afterwards High School 259 

Cotting House and B.\kery 94 

Crosby School Building 248 

Cutter Mill Pond 32 

Cutter School Building 248 

Cutter, Stephen, House (F. M. Chase) 99 

Cutting Ice on Spy* Pond 289 

Effect of Tornado of August, 1871 132 

Fessenden House 96 

Fire Warden's Outfit in 1843 271 

First Arlington Boat Club House 303 

First Baptist Church 207 

First Church Building in Arlingto.v, Built 1734 105 

First Parish Church, 1804 54 

First Parish Church 207 

First P.a.rson.\ge, Built 1740 44 

First Univers.\list Church . 207 

FiSKE, Rev. Thaddeus, D.D., Portrait 46 

Flume at Mill Street 31 

Grand Army Hall 204 

Hicks, S.\muel D. Estate 104 

9 



10 List of Illustrations 

PAGE 

High School Building 248 

Hiram Lodge, Parade ok, in 1897 294 

Horse Car in Use in 1859 117 

Hose Three House 275 

Hot-Houses on the Rawson Farm 280 

Jason Russell House (Tragedy of April 19, 1775) 184 

Locke Homestead 95 

Locke School Building 248 

Map Showing Loss and Gain in Territory 6 

Masonic Seal 295 

Menotomy Hall 171 

Middle District ScHf)OLHOusE, Built 1801 251 

Modes of Travel 81 

Monument to Memory of Killed in Civil War 154 

Northwest District Schoolhouse, Built 1826 255 

Old Eureka 273 

Old-Time Stage Coach 77 

Orthodox Congregational Church 207 

Parmenter, Hon. William E. (Portrait) 257 

Parmenter, William E., School Building 248 

Park Avenue (Congregational) Church 244 

Parson Fiske House, Built 1791 45 

Peck, Abel G., Estate 105 

Post Office Building, 1818 to 1840 82 

Post Office Building, 1840 to 1852 83 

Post Office Building, 1852 to 1895 83 

Procession of June 17, 1867 126 

Reception of Governor Bullock, June 17, 1867 128 

Retreat of the Regulars 177 

Revolutionary Soldiers' Monument 189 

RoBBiNS Library 267 

RoBBiNS, Eli (Portrait) 268 

RoBBiNS, Mrs. Maria C. (Portrait) 268 

Ruined Tower of First Parish Church 133 

Russell, Capt. Edward, House 100 

Russell Grocery 291 

Russell School Building, Burned 1872 257 

Russell School Building, Built 1872-3 248 

School Building in Old Burying Ground, 1810 252 

Site of Capt. George Cooke's Mill 19 

St. Agnes (Roman Catholic) Church 23S 

Tablet in Front of Jason Russell House 184 



List of Illustrations 11 



PAGE 

Town Hall Site in 1907 165 

Town Pump 158 

Town Seal 134 

Trinity Baptist Chukch 246 

Tufts' Tavern (George Russell Hotel) 100 

View of Arlington Center (West) in 1867 124 

View of Arlington Center (East) in 1867 125 

View of Arlington Center (East) in 1897 162 

View of Arlington Center (West) in 1897 163 

Wellington, Dr. Timothy (Portrait) 269 

Wellington, Dr. Timothy (Dr. Hodgdon), House 103 

Winn, Dr. William A. (Portrait) 261 

Winn Homestead, Site of Capt. Cooke's House 20 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



SECTION ONE 

I'AGE 

Arlixgtox as Men'otomy 17 

Settled prior to 1635. — Why Menotomy was chosen as the site for 
a village. — ■ Mill Brook and its mill privileges. — Capt. George 
Cooke builds a mill in 1637; his real estate holdings and public 
service. — "Watertown road" (now Pleasant street) cut through 
the wilderness, 1638. — Road to Woburn, 1643. — Mill privilege 
passes to Cutter family. — List of tax payers in Menotomy. — 
Some old-time farms located. — Home-making in early times. 



SECTION TWO 

Arlixgtox as Secoxd Precixct 34 

The church the unit. — People of Menotomy petition for permission 
to build a church. — Petition granted. — Residents of Charles- 
town in adjacent territorj^ permitted to join Second Precinct 
church. — Church built and dedicated. — Difficulties encountered 
in securing a minister. — Rev. Sanuiel Cooke chosen and settled as 
pastor. — Charlestown members granted district privileges. — 
Sketch of Parson Cooke and his successor, the Rev. Dr. Fiske. — 
Homes of first pastors. — Old-time taverns. — Change in high- 
ways. — Incidents preceding war of the Revolution. — How the 
war affected fortunes of the people. — Water works introduced 
in 1799. — Larger church accommodation needed. — Building a 
new church. 



SECTION THREE 

Arlixgtox as West Cambridge 

Chapter I -59 

The town is incorporated. — Separation not opposed by Cambridge. — 
Reasons financial and political suggested as contributing causes. 
— First town meeting. — Grand celebration July 4, 1S08. — 
Population in 1807. — Whittemore Card Factory and other busi- 
ness enterprises. — Middlesex Turnpike controversy and its out- 
come. — The old stage coach. — Post-office facilities. 

13 



14 Table of Contents 



PAGE 

Chapter II 73 

Business enterprises enumerated. — Mount Pleasant Cemetery estab- 
lished and dedicated. — Section of Charlestown annexed to 
Arlington. — Becomes a suburb of Boston. — Lexington and 
West Cambridge Railroad. — Postal facilities, past and present. 

— Naming streets. — River street bridge over Mystic River. — 
New dwellings contrasted with old. — Eliminating bogs and 
creating park lands. 

Chapter III 102 

Development of Pleasant street section. — Mystic street opened for 
fine estates. — County Commissioners order the town to build 
new outlet to Center. — The tornado of 1851. — Building Town 
Hall, — a ten year problem and how it was solved. — New fire 
engines bought. — Know-Nothing movement. — New town clock. 

Chapter IV 115 

Representative districts formed. — Arlington and Winchester con- 
stitute Sixth Middlesex. — The first horse cars. — Large section 
of land surrendered to form town of Belmont. — Street lighting 
with gas. — Russell Park accepted. — Flagstaff presented to 
town. — Civil War period. 

Chapter V 123 

The town renamed, and celebration of event. — The "training field" 
sold. — Tornado of 1871. — Adopting town seal. — Arlington 
Water Works heir to Arlington Lake Water Company. — Water 
Works inaugurated in 1872. — Bank Block erected. — Grading of 
Massachusetts avenue stopped by injunction. — Arlington favors 
a "Metropolitan District." — First newspaper enterprise. — 
Celebrating centennial of Battle of Lexington, and the aftermath. 

— Swan's Block built. — The "P. L. L." movement. — Reynolds's 
refomi crusade and what came of it. — Cambridge fails to secure 
a slice of Arlington territory. — Movement for a Metropolitan 
District. — Change in method of street building. 

Chapter VI 149 

Diminishing historical items. — Shrinkage in real estate valuation. — 
Cambridge seeks a piece of Arlington territory. — Pollution of 
Alewife Brook. — Charlestown street named Broadway. — Old 
elm cut down. — First Union Thanksgiving service. — Arlington 
Improvement Association. — Catholic Cemetery established. — 
Telephones introduced. — Apartment houses started. — Free 
text-books for schools. — Soldiers' monument built .and dedicated. 

— Change in leadership caused by death. 



Table of Contents 15 



PAGE 

Chapter VII 157 

Arlington Cooperative Bank. — Fire alarm .system. — Schools sup- 
plied with flags. — Australian ballot introduced. — Town pump 
abandoned. — First National Bank chartered. — Building Finance 
Block. — Patriots' Day inaugurated. — Board of Health chosen 
for first time. — Electricity in place of gas. — Changing grade of 
Massachusetts avenue. — Arlington has a state senator. — Two 
new brick blocks. — Main street renamed Massachusetts avenue. 

— A new postmaster. — The "Advocate's " quarter-centennial. — 
Sherman Block built. — First electric car to Arlington. — Histori- 
cal Society organized. — List of prominent people deceased. 

Chapter VIII I(j4 

Town buys Pattee and Robbins' estate for a new Town Hall site. — 
Committee of Twenty-one chosen. — Abolishing grade crossings. 

— Rebuilding Broadway. — Stephen Symmes leaves his entire 
estate to found a hospital. — Town Hall fire discloses a serious 
defalcation. — Change in town's financial officers in consequence. 

— Votes to choose .selectmen annually. — Old Menotomy Hall. 



SECTION FOUR 

Military Record 173 

Indian Wars. — Revolutionary War period. — Arlington's part in 
the events of April 19, 1775. — First capture of provisions and 
munitions made in this town. — Fatalities more numerous here 
than elsewhere. — The Civil War period and Arlington's part in 
the same. — The Drill Club. — Forming a Grand Army Post. 

SECTION FIVE 

Arlington and her Churches 207 

First Congregational (Unitarian) Parish. — First Baptist Church of 
Arlington. — Arlington Heights Baptist Church. — First Uni- 
versalist Church of Arlington. — Orthodox Congregational Church. 

— St. Agnes' (Roman Catholic) Church. — St. John's (Episcopal) 
Church. — Park Avenue Congregational Church. — 'I'rinity Bap- 
tist Cluirch. — Methodist Episcopal Church. 

SECTION SIX 

Arlington Public Schools, 1693 to 1907 248 

First schoolhou.se built in 1693. — Its dimensions and site named. — 
Used as a church. — New building erected in 1746. — New brick 
school in 1801 for "Middle District," in 1808 for "East District." 

— Center school building removed to burying ground in 1810. — 
Names of teachers employed in 1811. — School building for 



16 Table of Contents 



PAGE 

"South District" in 1826. — First Scliool Committee chosen in 
1827. — New arrangement of school districts in 1838. — New 
schoolhouses built. — First four-room building erected in 1861. — 
High school established 1864. — ■ Russell School, of brick, built in 
1872-73. — Wooden buildings replaced with brick structures 
1893-1900. — Bequests for educational purposes. — School Com- 
mittees from 1827-1907. — List of buildings and cost — Appro- 
priation for school purposes in 1811 and 1906 compared 



SECTION SEVEN 

Arlington and her Libraries 265 

First Library in 1807. — Founded in 1835. — Dr. Learned's legacy. — 
First librarian. — Where the library was first located prior to 
1852. — Transferred to Town Hall. — Finds a home in Swan's 
Block. — Transferred to Bobbins Library building. — Donors 
and their funds. 

SECTION EIGHT 

Arlington Fire Department 270 

Fire service compulsory in early times. — Fire Wardens and their 
outfit. — Old-time engines described and engine houses located. — ■ 
Changes in methods and introduction of up-to-date apparatus, 
through a gradual development. — Associations connected with 
fire department. 

SECTION NINE 

Business Enterprises ' 280 

Market Gardening. — Middlesex Aqueduct Company. — Harvesting 
the ice crop. — Schwamb Brothers and their enterprises. — Russell 
Store. — Whittemore Card Factory. — Schouler Print Works. — 
Welch & Griffiths Saw Factory. — Ice Tool Business. 

SECTION TEN 

Societies and Associations 295 

Hiram Lodge, F. and A. M. — Bethel Lodge No. 12, I.O.OF. — 
Arlington Boat Club. — Arlington Historical Society. — Arlington 
Woman's Club. — District Nursing Association. — Foresters of 
America. — Knights of Columbus. — Other societies and associa- 
tions. 

SECTION ELEVEN 

Centennial Celebration. — Appropriation for same. — List of General Com- 
mittees. — Sub-committees. — Features of the Day. — Special Guests. 



TOWN OF ARLINGTON 
PAST AND PRESENT 



SECTION ONE 



ARLINGTON AS MENOTOMY 
1637-1732 

Settled prior to 1635. — Why Menotomy was chosen as the site for a village. — 
Mill Brook and its mill privileges. — Capt. George Cooke builds a mill in 
1637; his real estate holdings and public service. — "Watertown road" 
(now Pleasant street) cut through the wilderness, 1638. — Road to 
Woburn, 1643. — Mill privilege passes to Cutter family. — -List of tax 
payers in Menotomy. — Some old-time farms located. — Home-making in 
early times. 

ALTHOUGH Arlington in this year 1907 is celebrating the 
-^Tj^ completion of her first century as an incorporated and 
separate township, it is not a new town. As a location of happy 
homes and prosperous business enterprises, some of the territory 
embraced within the town's corporate boundaries has had 
a distinctive name dating back to the earlier days of colonial 
history. The people having homes here have shared to a full 
degree in all the responsibilities resting upon the colony, the state, 
or the nation at any and all times during the two hundred and 
fifty years and more since the beginning of things on ''bleak New 
England shores," when demands for time, money, or the supreme 
sacrifice of life have come to them. 

Sharing thus to the full measure which population and means 
demanded for anything intended to aid in carrying forward or 
solving the great problems which seem to have been assigned to the 
American people by an overruling Providence, it is fitting that the 
story of what Arlington is today should be prefaced with all that 



18 Town of Arlingto7i 

is obtainable regarding a distant past which a present prosperity 
evidences must have been honorable; and a special occasion of 
pride to those among us able to name as their ancestors men 
who carved for themselves homes in what was then the wilderness. 

Writers of local histories are often at a loss to assign a good or 
sufficient cause why a certain locality was chosen by the earlier 
settlers of the territory secured as the place to found homes and 
establish a settlement. As a rule it would seem that chance, and 
not always the fortunate one either, ruled in the choice. 

No such enigma presents itself to the one called on to answer the 
question why, early in the seventeenth century, homes were 
established and something worthy the name of a village came into 
existence in the territory now called Arlington. Nature had pro- 
vided in this section that most inviting of all inducements, a 
stream of water capable of being utilized for mechanical purposes; 
and a history of Arlington, of its larger business enterprises 
at least, might be easily constructed out of what has occurred 
along the line of that little stream which, rising at the Great 
Meadows that form the westerly boundary of Arlington, flows in 
almost the geographical center of the town easterly and then 
northerly until it finds outlet in Mystic Lake , that is the northern 
boundary of the town. It is a narrow, swift stream, having a fall 
of over one hundred feet in its course of about two miles, and 
in earliest records is called "Mill Brook" and "Bull's Creek" 
at various times; Avhen Arlington took it for a water supply, in 
legal documents it is called "Sucker Brook." 

Power with which to grind corn and run a mill to transform 
logs into lumber for various purposes was then, as it now is, the 
prime essential for a community where there is no other means of 
supplying bodily needs and comforts. Because her mill stream 
met this demand, Arlington's real history dates back to within 
about fifteen years of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 

In the year 1635 there arrived in Cambridge, in company with 
Rev. Thomas Shepard, the minister of that town, Capt. George 
Cooke and his brother Joseph. They came registered and desig- 
nated on the list as servants "to enable them the more easily 
to escape from England." Both were men of means and the 



Past and Present 



19 



former evidently of signal ability. Shortly after arriving they 
purchased in "Newtowne," as Cambridge was then called, several 
houses and much land from the colonists who, under the leader- 
ship of Rev. Thomas Hooker, were on the eve of departure 
for Connecticut. 

Two years later, namely in 1637, Captain Cooke obtained a grant 
from Cambridge of twenty acres of land on the border of Mill 
Brook, there built a dam and erected a mill. This location was 
near the lowest level of this water course and not a great distance 
from its outlet into Mystic River. 

It was the first mill to be run by water in all the territory within 




SITE OF CAPT. GEORGE COOKE'S MILL 

the Cambridge grant, or adjacent territory either ; a single wind 
mill in Cambridge, "which would only grind when the wind was 
from the east," being the only means of grinding corn prior to 
this date. The site of that first mill is plainly marked even at the 
present time by banks of earth extending from either side and 
about the middle of the mill pond at Fowle's Arlington Mills. 
The accompanying illustration is a good picture. 

The visiting stranger today will probably think as a young 
man expressed to the writer some years ago, ''a pretty small body 
of water to call a mill pond.'' But it should be remembered that 
in 1637 there was no railroad bed occupying a portion of it as 



20 



Town of Arlington 



there is at the present time; also that the dam at Mill street was 
not built until many years afterwards. 

By striking levels it will be seen that Captain Cooke's mill pond 
must have covered all the territory westward as far as Grove street. 

Captain Cooke's grant 
of land at this site con- 
5!>aI«?!;'( , sisted of about twenty 

acres on the margin of 




W^ 






ALBERT WINN HOMESTEAD 
Site of Capt. George Cooke House, built I 637-8 



Mill Brook, and in 
addition to the mill 
erected there he "built 
a dwelling house, barns 
and suitable outbuild- 
ings," as the record 
reads. 

Capt. George Cooke 
was undoubtedly a man of strong convictions, great energy, and 
commanded the respect and confidence of the people of this 
section (then parts of Cambridge and Charlestown) , for he was 
selectman of Newtowne, as Cambridge was then called, in 1636, 
1642-3; representative to the General Court 1642-5, and speaker 
of the House in 1645. 

He was one of the earliest members of the Ancient and Honorable 
Artillery Company of Boston, its captain in 1643, and was the first 
captain of a similar company incorporated in Middlesex County. 
In 1643 Captain Cooke was one of three commissioners and the 
commander-in-chief of a company of forty men comprising the 
guard to attend them, who were sent on an expedition to Rhode 
Island, "with authority to apprehend Samuel Gorton and his 
company, and to bring them to Boston if they do not give them 
satisfaction." In the House of Deputies he served on many of its 
important committees. 

In 1645 he was elected one of the Reserve Commissioners of the 
United Colonies. Captain Cooke returned to England near the 
end of 1645 (being excused by the General Court, according to 
the record, "from further service, being to go for England"); 
was a colonel in Cromwell's army, and sacrificed his life in the 



Past and Present 21 



service of the Commonwealth, being reported shiin in the wars in 
Ireland in the year 1652. 

This pioneer in the territor}' now called Arlington, in business 
enterprises if not as a home maker, stands as a type of men in 
all New England at that early period in our history, of whom it 
ma}' be said Providence seems to have raised up to create a new 
world. Born amid trials, privations, persecutions, thus enured to 
bear hardships and overcome seeming unsurmountable obstacles, 
they attained a vigor sufficient to conquer for themselves wealth, 
power, honored names. 

Better than all this, they imparted sufficient of their strength of 
character and nobleness of purpose to enable succeeding genera- 
tions of their progeny to receive and transform into close simili- 
tude to their attainment the millions from other lands who, in 
these later years, have sought an asylum and an opportunity for 
growth and development in the home they had founded. It was 
a moral as well as a physical triumph, and because of the former 
the latter was signall}^ successful, and the results are apparently 
permanent. 

With the departure of Captain Cooke for England the business 
of the mill was evidently abandoned and the property allowed to 
go to decay, for the mill was entirely demolished prior to the 
date when land and buildings connected with it passed to other 
hands. 

In 1670, Edward Collins of Bedford, acting as attorney for 
Mary Cooke of England, daughter of Captain Cooke, sold ''the 
mill privilege, buildings, and twenty acres of land," to John Rolfe 
of Nantucket. ^Ir. Rolfe erected an entirely new mill on the old 
site. 

In 1681 Rolfe 's widow was granted permission "to make a dam 
above the old mill pond to keep water in, for to accommodate the 
mill with water," and this is without doubt the dam at Mill street. 
On his decease the mill and certain other parts of his father's estate 
passed to his son, John Rolfe. William Cutter had married Rolfe's 
sister, Rebecca. The senior Rolfe had given to ^Ir. Cutter an acre 
of land, but without any legal conveyance of the same, on which 
he, being a carpenter, had built a house. 



22 Town of Arlington 

Dying intestate, the estate passed mainly to Rolfe's son John. 
In 1685 the junior John Rolfe, "in consideration that my honored 
father John Rolfe, late of Cambridge, deceased, did in his life- 
time give unto my loving brother-in-law William Cutter, of the 
same town, carpenter, one small piece of land at the west corner of 
his homestead to set a house on," etc., gives to said Cutter four 
acres of land and a share in the mill privilege. William Cutter 
ultimately acquired, by purchase, nearly all the original holdings 
of the Rolfe family in Menotomy. 

From 1693 to 1698, William Cutter was subjected to lawsuits 
instituted by Mary Cooke of England to recover the grant of 
twenty acres to her father, but he was able to maintain his title. 
The controversy is fully reported in the County Court Records. 

It is a singular fact that the exact date when Captain Cooke 
secured title to the land surrounding and mill privilege at Mill 
Brook is not recorded. Contemporaneous records only fix it as 
1637. No less remarkable, however, than that each historian who 
has gathered data locates the "600 acres granted Captain Cooke" 
by a subsequent vote, " in the vicinity of his mill." 

In reality the grant was in another part of Cambridge, and has 
been definitely located by ]\Ir. Thomas Hutchinson's researches 
within the limits of what is now the town of Lexington, and Vine 
Brook passed through the same. Forest street. Bow street, and 
the road over Turkey hill were built or at least cut through the 
forest to obtain access to this farm from the mill. 

Captain Cooke's name is not mentioned in connection with 
building the road "from Watertown to Cooke's mill in Menotomy," 
but he was one of the committee appointed by the General Court to 
'May out the way from Cambridge to Woburn," in 1643, and 
described in the records of that town as "leading to Cambridge 
mill and town." This is the present Mystic street. 

Another public service rendered by Captain Cooke in addition 
to those already named was building a two rail fence to secure the 
Indians' corn. This fence was of "two sufficient rails in the town 
line between Cambridge and Charlestown, about half a mile in 
length, beginning at the outside of Cooke's land and running out 
northward to meet Captain Gibbons's fence, and inclosed the 



Past and Present 23 



land on the west of the two great ponds called Misticke ponds which 
Squa Sachem reserved for her use durhig her life from sale of fands 
to the towns of Cambridge and Charlestown, for the Indians to 
plant and hunt upon; extending, in Charlestown limits, from the 
south side of Mr. Nowell's lot, near the upper end of the ponds, to 
the brook of Cooke's mill." 

The Cutter family was among the first to acquire territory in 
Arlington, and many large holdings of real estate are today in the 
possession of their descendants. William Cutter, a wine cooper by 
trade, had extensive holdings in Cambridge and Menotomy, and 
his brother Richard "had four acres of land in the Menotomy 
neighborhood, bounded John Brewer east, William Towne west, 
Charlestown line north, and common south." How important 
the Cutters became to this section in the next generation has 
already been stated; how closely the family has been identified 
with the growth of the town for more than two and a half centuries 
will be shown in succeeding pages. 

People of today who are satisfied with house lots, and believe a 
"little farm well tilled" far better than broad tracts of unpro- 
ductive land on which taxes will be assessed, are often surprised 
at the land grabbing propensities of the early settlers, who wan- 
dered off into wild territory to endure great suffering and many 
hardships, when their desires for more land in this locality could 
not be met. The fact is, clearings were few and far between and 
were in the greatest demand by all. It takes time to cut down 
forests and clear the ground so it will produce hay, grain, and vege- 
tables. These cleared places or "meadow lands" as they are 
termed in early records, to secure which one had to purchase 
great tracts of wood land, were due to the burning of the 
timber by the Indians for purposes of their own. To the fact 
that at Lexington there was a wide stretch of this cleared land, is 
due the desire to secure broad tracts there, as well as the making 
of the roadway we call i\Iassachusetts avenue and the building of 
a bridge over Menotomy River (now Alewife Brook), which was 
not then the narrow and clogged stream it has since become. 

It was from these broad acres in Lexington that Cambridge 
people cut the fodder for their cattle while other lands were be- 



24 Town of Arlington 

ing cleared, and the proximity of Mill Brook to this road led to 
the location of Captain Cooke's mill. At about the time 
Captain Cooke erected his mill, a road was made from Water- 
town to the mill, and Pleasant street both in Arlington and 
Belmont closely conforms to the original survey for this county 
road. 

What is now named jMassachusetts avenue was then called 
Concord road, and this new road from Watertown met and crossed 
it at nearly right angles and reached the mill by what is now 
called Water street. But there was for many years prior to the 
Revolution another "right of way" to the mill nearly parallel 
with Water street through the passageway between Studio Block 
and Associates' Building, across vacant land in the rear and 
Boston and Maine Railroad, by the way of what is now Russell 
terrace and continuing through the Sylvester Stickney estate to 
the mill. 

Land for homesteads in the territory known today as Arling- 
ton had been granted to a few householders prior to the coming 
of Captain Geo. Cooke, whose estate here consisted of "dwelling 
house, barnes and outbuildings on the twenty acres on a part 
of which the mill stood," as the record reads. When these emi- 
grants arrived is largely a matter of conjecture, and is perhaps 
not material in a sketch of the town's early history, which this is 
intended to be, and not a chronological or genealogical record. 
But if these farms cannot now be located it will be of interest to 
know that the tax list of Cambridge for 1688 was made up with 
"A list of tax payers in Menotomy" in a separate section, which 
will help any interested to trace out the details, arranged alpha- 
betically, as follows: 

Matthew Abdee. James Hubbard. 

John Adams. Israel Mead. 

Samuel Buck. Nathaniel Patten. 

Richard Cutter. Joseph Russell. 

William Cutter. William Russell. 

Gershom Cutter. Jason Russell. 

Nathaniel Cutter. Jonathan Saunders. 

William Dickson. John W^ellington. 

John Dickson. Edward Winship. 

John Dunster Joseph Winsliip. 



Past and Present 25 



Taxed for estates only — Thomas Hall, Justinian Holden, 
Lieut. Edwin Winship. 

The next 3'ear (1689) holdings were granted to Abraham 
Watson, John Dickson, Samuel Cooke, Philip Cooke, Joseph 
Adams, Gershom Cutter, William Cutter, Jonathan Dunster. 

This action on the part of Cambridge indicates that the village 
had in 1688 become of some importance to the mother town. 
Further proof appears in a grant by Cambridge of a "quarter 
acre of ground upon their [Menotomy] common, near Jason 
Russell house, near the highway, for the accommodation of a 
school house." 

So much space has been given to Captain Cooke and his mill 
and in diverging roadways leading to it, that his brother Joseph's 
connection with old Menotomy has dropped out of view, but 
that he was here is shown by his sale of land to John Adams in 
1664. This tract consisted of "thirteen acres of upland and 
meadow lying by Notomy River, abutting on highway leading 
from Cambridge to Concord east; west the swamp ground leading 
to Fresh Pond meadow; south by Menotomy River; north on 
swamp toward Spy Pond." This was but a small addition, 
however, to the said John Adams' holdings, which in 1664 con- 
sisted of one hundred and seventeen acres, stretching from Meno- 
tomy meadow to Mr. Pelham's farm. Jason Russell, grandfather 
of the Jason Russell killed April 19, 1775, bought twenty acres 
of this Pelham, "in the first division of the Rocks," and as Pelham 
terrace of today is located in this purchase, the propriety of 
going back to this ancient date for a name is apparent. It joined 
the "forty acres for the ministry, bounded on Concord road north- 
east," that was set apart in 1689. 

It will be the task of some one interested enough and with 
time to accomplish the task, to determine the population of 
this territory at stated periods prior to 1807. Mr. Thomas Hut- 
chinson is working along these lines and has made a valuable 
collection of facts and statistics, but these are not complete 
enough to be of use at this time. All now available are few 
and scattered, such as that the stretch of territory east of Fresh 
Pond to ]\Ienotomy River was divided into allotments by vote 



26 Town of Arlington 

of Cambridge in 1658; but no names given in the local records. 
The same is true of divisions mentioned as having taken place 
at other periods in this territory. 

In the absence therefore of more complete records out of 
which to construct a connected story of early settlers and where 
their dwellings were located from 1635 to the close of the cen- 
tury, the following are presented with the hope that Arlington 
Historical Society may at some future time take up this im- 
portant branch of local history and pursue it until the sources 
of information are exhausted. A volume of this sort, with geneal- 
ogies supplementing it, would be a priceless gift to succeeding 
generations. The scraps of history along this line referred to 
are as follows: 

Herbert Pelham had a house and 600 acres of land in 1642 — 
probably the earliest house built in the direction of Lexington in 
the limits of Cambr dge, — and Edward Goffe had 600 acres of 
land, and Roger 8haw, 200 acres more, near the southwest side 
of Capt. George Cooke's farm, another grant of 600 acres ex- 
tending in the direction of Lexington, and including much land 
now located in that town, as well as in Arlington. John Bridge 
had also a grant of a much smaller piece of land at this early 
period in the vicinity of Vine Brook, where his stacks of hay 
once stood. This shows that haying was carried on at a dis- 
tance from the settled area near the village, before 1645. 

Capt. George Cooke had one dwelling house, with mill and 
outhouses, and twenty acres of land in Menotomy limits, in 1642, 
bounded easterly on the Charlestown line. The house stood on 
the site of the late Albert Winn's cottage on Summer street, 
and the twenty acres of land surrounded this spot, being included, 
for the greater part, in the late Albert Winn's farm. I have been 
particular to use these somewhat old designations, because they 
are more familiar to the former residents of Arlington, who have 
been absent from the town for several years, than a more modern 
description would be. 

In 1645 forty-seven lots were granted by the town on the 
southerly side of the Charlestown line, and on the westerly side of 
Menotomy River, but it is doubtful if any houses were built upon 
them for a long series of years. These lots were soon subject to 
many changes of ownership, and were located on the level ground 
south of the present Medford street, the ancient way to the Weir 



Past and Present 27 



Bridge over the Mystic River — the weir being very early estab- 
lished in that water course. 

1647. Cutting trees antl taking away wood from "Great 
Swamp" — its location was on both sides of Menotomy River — 
was forbidden, showing it to be common property and reserved 
for grazing and liay cutting purposes. 

1658. The "CIreat Swamp'' was divided into allotments on the 
east side of Fresh Pond and IMenotoni}- River. 

1653. Justinian Holden bought 289 acres bounded south on 
Fresh Pond and east on ^lenotomy River. 

1656. Edward Ross, servant of Edwin Winship, had liberty to 
mow the grass in the swamp anent the north end of Spy Pond. 
[The building of the steam railroad eliminated this stretch of 
swamp land in Arlington.] 

William Patten resided on the easterly side of North avenue in 
Caml^ridge and had charge of the town herd of cattle driven daily 
to feed in the grass lands in ^Ienotom3^ 

1655. John Fownell sold to Henry Dunster, President of 
Harvard College, thirteen acres to add to the grant from Charles- 
town, which grant is now within the limits of Arlington. 

Lots were granted about the Menotomy Bridge over the Ale- 
wife Brook, and on the plain forming a large portion of the present 
North Cambridge, before the Menotomy side of that stream 
received attention, and among the most important was that of 
John Adams, who, in 1664, bought the grant of Joseph Cooke, a 
former Cambridge resident, who was then of Stannaway Co., 
Essex, England. This purchase was a lot of thirteen acres, lying 
by the brook, the highway from Cambridge to Concord being east. 

This John Adams is prominent as one of the first settlers to 
locate at the present Arlington Center, and his farm, in 1664, 
embraced 117 acres, which he had purchased of Golden ]\Ioore, and 
from a more particular description in the public records, it was 
said to be bounded on the northeast by Widow Russell's farm, 
that was purchased of Richard Jackson, and on the other sides by 
other lands, leaving sufficient space for the highway that led to 
Concord. From its early occupant are descended, more or less 
remotely, a large part of the former inhabitants of Arlington. He 
had been granted other lands. His house was near the center of 
the town. 

Minute directions are inscribed on the records in 1689 for the 
division of a large tract which apparently covers the greater part 



28 Town of Arlington 

of the present town of Arlington. This region was called by the 
general name of the Cambridge Rocks, and the description of 106 
lots in the first division contains information to explain the ap- 
proximate location of a large number. For example, the 68th lot 
was laid out to Jacob Hill. It contained eight acres, and its 
bounds show it to be located on the present westerly corner of 
Water street and Massachusetts avenue. The lots westerly of it, 
and on the same side of the avenue, were: 

No. Laid out to Acres. 

67 . . . William Manning, 8 

66 . . . Owen Warland, 8 

65 . . . Nathaniel Hancock, 8 

64 . . . Widow Russell, alias Hall, 8 

63 . . . .John Sawtelle, 3 

62 . . . Andrew Belcher, 8 

61 . . . Peter Towne, 8 

And SO on, up the avenue, till the point modernly called "The 
Foot of the Rocks" is reached, when the direction appears to 
change. Many lots bounded on the southerly side of Massachu- 
setts avenue appear in the enumeration. 

1697. John Adams conveyed to his son Joseph the homestead 
and adjoining lots, "chiefly because he has been a loving son to 
me." 

1699. John Adams conveyed to William Patten ten acres, 
south by Menotomy River, south and west by John Dickson's 
meadow and Jonathan Butterfield's, southeast by said Adams, 
northwest by Adams's swamp and northeast by the country road. 

The second division of lots at the Cambridge Rocks began where 
the first ended, and the record is continued through man)' pages 
till the description of 104 lots is included. Originally there was 
tendered to the selectmen a plan of these lots, but like many other 
things of that time, it has been lost. 

Jason Russell soon bought one of these Arlington lots and 
William Russell bought the Hancock and Warland lots, with a 
lot laid out to his mother, the Widow Hall, and acquired possession 
of the Sawtelle lot, and thus the Russell family soon occupied an 
important section of the territory at Arlington Center. 

Another large section at the Center was occupied by the Cutters, 
and there is a plan of their tract still extant, bearing the date of 
1725. Thus, if one had the time, it would be easy to show how 
this portion of Arlington was occupied in the earlier times by the 
Adamses, the Russells, the Cutters, and others. 



Past and Present 29 



The foregoing items are in the main taken from an article 
contributed to the columns of Arlington Advocate a few years 
ago by William R. Cutter, of Woburn, and were the result of 
later researches in the "Proprietors' Records" of the town of 
Cambridge, w^hich in reality is a book of land transfers. 

But if little is known of location or area of holdings in Arling- 
ton in early days, it is our good fortune to be al)le to present a 
picture of the home-making process of those early times, in a 
letter written to Governor Hill of New Hampshire by John 
Adams, in 1847, when the writer was one himdred and two years 
old. He was a son of Joseph Adams (born here in 1713), and 
the writer's home was in the old Adams homestead, a jMcture of 
which will be found on page 99. He writes: 

j\iy father gave me what learning time and circumstances 
would admit, aiming at nothing more than that I might be able 
to do common business. He had no man's help but mine, and it 
kept me in constant employ. He had at this time a place (fifty 
years ago it was usual to call a common farm a place) in Lex- 
ington belonging to my mother-in-law, which he carried on and 
had the profits. At this place I often went to work. The house 
was rented to a mechanic, where I used to board. When 1 was 
in my nineteenth year I was sent there in the spring to work. 
The woman of the house had been confined and her nurse was 
still with her. The nurse was young and so was I, and in the 
course of the week which I was to work there, often speaking to 
each other, we had formed a sort of acquaintance. When my 
week was ovit, not having said all I wished to, I asked the privi- 
lege of paying her a visit at her father's, and not being denied I 
was careful to pay it, which only made another to be desirable; 
and being well treated by all the family, my visits were made as 
opportunity offered through spring, summer and fall; and, to be 
short, until I was my own man (one and twenty-two full years; 
and this was two or three years before the final consummation!). 
By this time there was a mutual desire that we might spend our 
lives together; but how was it to be done? I was poor — my 
partner was not rich; and to think of going to live together in 
such circumstances was not prudent. We concluded to live as 
we were until we could gain a little something to live on. I 
would go to work on my new lot of wilderness land which I had 
newly bought and she would work where it was most to her 
interest. 



30 Town of Arlington 

My land was part of Cambridge farm in Ashburnham, ^lass., 
fifty miles from my native place. Early in the spring I took my 
ax on my back and set out for my new country, began to 
chop down the timber on two or three acres, went back, 
worked at jMedford in the summer making bricks on shares. 
In the fall I again went to my land, cleared off my wood, sowed 
two acres of rye, returned to West Cambridge, worked through 
the winter making shoes with ^Mr. John Russell; in the spring 
went and disposed of my bricks, went again to my land; my rye 
looked well but had no barn, built one that summer, saved a 
little more, returned to Mr. Russell's in the winter. In the 
spring went to my land, made some provision for a house: and 
in the year 1770 hit so that on the 9th of July, my partner being 
as ready as I was, we were married. Having provided a team to 
carry her furniture and a horse for her and another for myself, 
we set out for the woods. She had never seen a foot of land 
within forty miles of our place, but her courage held out till we 
got home, and then it was better than ever. We were now 
where we had long wanted to be, and hoped that we with thank- 
ful hearts and contented minds should enjoy ourselves together 
through life. 

Children and health blessed this "home in the wilderness," 
and for fifty-three years this couple shared life's lot. 

This sketch of old Menotomy opened with all the facts obtain- 
able regarding the building of the first mill. It may fittingly 
close with a tracing of this and other business enterprises along 
Mill Brook. 

John Cutter, on ^larch .3, 1768, sold to Jonathan Cutter, only 
heir of the last William, one half of the ancient milldam, yard, 
and pond, containing two and one half acres, shown in plan of 
the date of about 1725, being John's estate of inheritance in fee 
simple, and also the old mill privilege originally belonging to 
Col. George Cooke. Jonathan Cutter, on March 25, 1768, sold 
to Ammi Cutter the same premises, being described as "one 
certain ancient milldam, pond, and yard," containing by estima- 
tion two acres and a half. These premises Ammi increased by 
the purchase of one and a half acres of meadow and upland of 
his father John Cutter, in 1770, immediately below the old mill- 
dam and yard, and now included in Fowle's lower pond; also by 
the purchase of three and three quarters acres more in the same 



Past and Present 



31 



direction below the dam, and extending to the Woburn road, 
of his cousin Samuel Cutter, in 177S, afterward Ammi's son's, 
Benjamin Cutter's, of Charlestown, who sold a part to Ephraim 
Cutter, containing one acre and a half and twenty-two rods, in 
1804, shown in a plan by Peter Tufts, Jr., dated 1803, and makes 
a part of Fowle's lower millpond, and the lanes formerly leading 
to Ephraim Cutter's mill. Ammi Cutter left "one Grist Mill, 
with a Bolt in the same," located on the ancient dam bought 
by him in 1768, which was assigned on the distribution of his 
estate, in 1795, as a part of the portion of his sixth son Ephraim 
Cutter, who built a new dam and mill below the old one. about 
1800. On the distribution of Ephraim Cutter's estate at his 
death in 1841, the mill and privilege fell to the possession of his 
sons, Benjamin and Samuel L. Cutter. In 1850 Benjamin Cutter, 
of Woburn, bought of his brother, Samuel Locke Cutter, the un- 
divided half of the mill and lands, which they had owned in 
common. The premises are now the ])roperty of Dr. Benjamin 
Cutter's son-in-law, Samuel A. Fowle. 

The second mill privilege made useful on this stream (count- 
ing the 1637 mill and its nearby successor as one) was created 
by building the dam at what 
is now i\Iill street, built by 
William Cutter in 1704, 
probably at that time avail- 
ing himself of the grant 
from his mother-in-law, the 
widow Rolfe. in 1685. This 
privilege, like the other lower 
down the stream, remained 
in the hands of the Cutter 
family until 1835. when 
]Mary Cutter, widow of 

Stephen, sold the privilege to Eli Robbins, reserving the privi- 
lege granted to the Baptist church of using so much of the mill 
pond as is necessary for the ordinance of baptism. The following 
year Robbins sold the privilege to Cyrus Cutter, and it was in the 
old mill, at the age of eighty-two, that he lost his life by accident. 




FLUME AT Mill street 



32 



Town of Arlington 




CUTTER MILL POND 

In which the Baptist church has reserved rights 

by will 



The privilege is now a part of the Fowle's Arlington Mills property 
as well as the original Captain Cooke grant. 

What is now the dam and mill pond of Charles Schwamb & Son, 
according to Cutter's history, was the next mill privilege located 

on this stream, and must 

have been in use prior to 
1778, as it was in that year 
certain co-heirs quitclaimed 
to Samuel Cutter, "a certain 
grist mill in Cambridge, with 
all and singular the dam, 
fiooms, mill pond," etc., at 
this place. This property was 
sold to Ichabod Fessenden 
in 1795; by him to John 
Perry and Stephen Locke in 
1809. The succeeding transfers are easily traceable. 

The Theodore Schwamb Co. mill privilege was the next 
interruption to the flow of Mill Brook, and unlike the others, 
which were in the main grist mills, was an edge tool factory. It 
was built by Gershom Cutter, and descended to his son Aaron 
Cutter. 

The Schouler mill privilege as it is still spoken of, though it is no 
longer in existence, dates back to the beginning of the last century. 
In 1810 or 1811 Abner Stearns of Billerica built here a large 
factory, in which besides his fulling mill he had a spinning machine 
of seventy-two spindles. The yarn spvm was taken elsewhere to 
be made into broadcloth. The peace of 1815 making his business 
unprofitable, Stearns left West Cambridge, and in 1832 sold the 
whole property, mills, dwellings, etc., to James Schouler, who intro- 
duced the business of calico printing, and his sons later made it a 
great success. Prior to locating here Abner Stearns had owned 
the privilege farther west in 1808, carrying on wool carding, etc.. 
which later came into the control of Welch & Griffiths b}' 
lease. Stearns sold this to John Tufts, and the old mill and others 
he erected there were destroyed by fire in 1831, so when Welch & 
Griffiths came in 1832, there was the mill privilege alone available. 



Past and Present 33 



In the interval Tufts had sold to Ezra Trull of Boston, and Trull 
had sold to Cyrus Cutter, so the lease came from this latter. 

In 1816 Tchaliod Fessenden built a mill at the J. C. Hobbs privi- 
lege as it is still called, though Deacon Hobbs has been some years 
dead, and another enterprise strikingly different from the making 
of machine knives which made him famous is carried on at the 
brick facto rv he erected there. 



SECTION TWO 



ARLINGTON AS SECOND PRECINCT OF CAMBRIDGE 

1732-1S07 

The church the unit. — People of Menotomy petition for permission to build a 
church. — Petition granted. — Residents of Charlestown in adjacent 
territory permitted to join Second Precinct diurch. — Church built and 
dedicated. — Difficulties encountered in securing a minister. — Rev. 
Samuel Cooke chosen and settled as pastor. — Charlestown members 
granted district privileges. — Sketch of Parson Cooke and his successor, 
the Rev. Dr. Fiske. — Homes of first pastors. — Old-time taverns. — 
Change in highways. — Incidents preceding war of the Revolution. — 
How the war affected fortunes of the people. — Water works introduced 
in 1799. — Larger clun-ch accommodation needed. — Building a new church. 

DURING the entire period covered by the history of Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony and for a considerable time after the 
independence of the colonies had been acknowledged by England 
. and Massachusetts had become one of the United States of 
America, all authority except the purely military seems to have 
been centered in the church. 

For many years this authority ^^'as almost absolute. As is 
naturally the case where such conditions exist, it trenched closely 
all too often on lines that were tyrannical. 

The emigrants to these shores fled from oppression at home to 
found in a new continent a state where "they might worship God 
according to the dictates of their own consciences." They fled 
from "conformity," and in the new world established a com- 
munity of "freemen," to be governed by rules and laws mutually 
agreed upon. But by that strange moral blindness which, in the 
past at least, has dulled the vision of so many good people to the 
fact that difference of opinion may be as sacred to one set of men 
as another, they demanded "conformity " to their religious creed 
and form of worship in the new land and enforced that demand 

with at least a vigorous arm. 

PA 



Past and Present 35 



To be a "freeman" a man must be an "orthodox member of the 
cliurch. at least twent.y years old, worth £200, and must take oath 
to be true and faithful subjects and yield assistance and support 
to church and Commonwealth." Though we may smile at or 
vigorously condemn, as the mood serves, the stern austerity of 
these men. we should ask is it not probable we should have been 
like them had we lived in their time. They came here for peace, 
for unity. To have their form of worship condemned, their creed 
ignored or scouted by men whom the}' judged ought to act with 
them, was not to be tolerated. It was destructive of all they had 
planned for in the new world in which they had made a home at 
the cost of great privation and no small measure of suffering, 
Quakers, Baptists, and others were "disturbers of the peace." 
They must be punished and brought to reason by fines and im- 
prisonment. The Quakers would not bear their share in fighting 
a foe. In the opinion of the Puritan it was a coward who would 
not defend his home. The Baptists denied theirs to be a saving 
faith. Could this be tolerated? The colonists do not need this 
defense, but these facts are worth consideration. 

Because of this supreme authority on the part of the church 
(and it was the church as a whole and not a priest, pastor, synod, 
or vestry that enforced it), no town or "precinct" rights were 
granted other than authority to a certain number of people to 
"found a church." 

That church, so founded, became in its turn the center of legal 
as well as ecclesiastical authority, and the history of any "First 
Parish" in Middlesex County, during the years from 1630 to 1800 
at least, is of necessity the history of the town for that period. 
This is true to an almost singular extent of the Second Precinct 
of Cambridge, as Arlington was designated Avhen partial control 
in local affairs was granted. 

At this period in our history, everybody was obliged to attend 
public church worship "except for good and sufficient reasons." 
All dwellers in ^lenotomy were members of the Cambridge church 
or at least under its jurisdiction, and to this church they must 
journey on Sunday. 

.May 10, 1725, residents here petitioned the church at Cambridge 



36 Town of Arlington 

to allow them to establish a church of their own, but were denied 
on the ground "that near one half of said inhabitants had not 
signed the petition." A renewal of the petition in 1728 met with 
refusal, but the grounds are not stated. Another petition sent to 
the General Court, June 30, 1732, was opposed by Cambridge and 
rejected Nov. 3, 1732. 

This petition was renewed the following month, and Cambridge 
was ordered to appear December 6, 1732, and show cause why the 
same should not be granted. Dec. 27, 1732, by order of the 
General Court, the prayer of the petitioners was granted by 
the acceptance of the following report: 

Ebenezer Burrill, Esq., for the committee of both houses on 
the petition above, reported that said committee, appointed to 
take under consideration said petition, having repaired to the 
lands petitioned for, and notified the petitioners and agents for 
the town of Cambridge [Hon. Spencer Phips, Jonathan Remington, 
Frances Foxcroft, William Brattles, Esq., and Mr. Andrew Board- 
man] with other petitioners, and having carefully viewed the 
place and heard the parties, are humbly of the opinion that the 
lands in the northwest part of said town petitioned for, be set off 
as a distinct precinct by the following boundaries : 

On ^Tenotomy River from Charlestown till it comes to Spy Pond 
Brook, then on said brook till it comes to a watercourse or ditch 
in Whiting's meadow, so called, the ditch to be the boundary 
till it comes to Hamblet's Brook, following the course of said 
brook to the bridge, thence on a straight line to the northwest 
corner of Mr. Isaac Holden's orchard and continuing the same 
course to Watertown line. And that the inhabitants of the said 
precinct be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities 
that other precincts within this Province do or by law ought to 
enjoy. 

The boundary line between Charlestown and Cambridge was 
parallel with Broadway and about the south side of Warren street. 
On the strip of land between this line and Mystic River, west of 
Alewife Brook, resided Samuel Cutter, George Cutter, Samuel 
Gooding, Joseph Russell, William Dickson, Philip Carteret, and 
David Dunster. Obtaining permission from the Charlestown 
chvirch, these landholders joined with the Second Precinct people 
in meeting the expense of building a church; but this vote of the 



Past and Present 37 



Charlestown church did not release these men from taxes to 
support schools, etc., of that town. 

This action doubtless found its initiative in a vote passed by 
the freeholders and inhabitants of the Second Precinct at a meet- 
ing held in the schoolhouse ^larch 5, 1733, "to see whether our 
inhabitants would desire our neighbors in the adjacent part 
of Charlestown to join with us in settling the gospel ministry 
among us." This was the action of the second meeting of the 
freeholders. 

At a third meeting, held April 16, a committee was chosen to 
provide preaching for six months after the following May 1, and 
ninety pounds was raised for support of preaching for one year. 
Another meeting of the freeholders was held July 10, 1733, at 
which the project of a meetinghouse Avas successfully launched. 

Some years previous Cambridge had granted to the dwellers in 
Menotomy the lot of land on ^lassachusetts avenue and Pleasant 
street, still occupied by First Parish church, for "a commons and 
burying ground." This naturally was selected as the place on 
which to erect the church building, as it had not yet been used for 
burial purposes; interments of deceased residents of Menotomy 
being in the grounds connected with the first church of Cambridge. 
The record speaks of this plot as being "the parcel of land lying 
between Mr. Jason Russell's pasture and Ebenezer Swan's field, 
which was reserved out of the commons for a burying place." 

At a meeting held Sept. 17, 1733, it was voted to raise three 
hundred pounds by general tax to build a meetinghouse, the 
dimensions of which were to be forty -six by thirty-six, with 
twenty-four foot posts, and a suitable belfry. The committee to 
superintend the building consisted of James Cutler, John Cutter, 
Ephraim Frost. Henry Dunster, Jonathan Butterfield. 

The inhabitants of the Charlestown section of the parish joined 
heartily in this enterprise and in the following year it was ready for 
occupancy. It contained "seventeen pews besides the ministerial 
pew, which was next the pulpit stairs." The holders of these pews 
were Rev. John Whiting, John Cutter, Henry Dunster, Jason 
Russell, Ephraim Frost, James Cutler, Joseph Adams, Jonathan 
Butterfield, Joseph Winship, Rev. Nathaniel Appleton, Abraham 



38 Tow7i of Arlington 



Hill, John Swan, Joseph Russell, William Dickson, Samuel Cutter, 
John Winship. 

In addition to these "pews" (square, box-like inclosures with 
seats on three sides with door from the aisle) owned exclusively by 
those purchasing them, there were benches of plain wood in the 
space to the rear; also "seats over the gallery stairs for the negroes 
to sit in.'' 

It is evident that in Menotomy at least, at the early time now 
under review, a spirit of equality was developing, for when, a few 
years later, an attempt was made to introduce more "pews," it 
was successfully resisted, the wooden bench people being in the 
majority. 

The earlier settlers of ^Massachusetts Bay Colony, and notably 
of those in Menotomy, came largely from England, where titled 
people held precedence in every walk in life and nowhere so sig- 
nally as in the church. The pastor owed his appointment to the 
squire or lord's choice, and in everything this potent force was 
bowed to without question if not always with reverence. 

It was natural, therefore, that men who were acknowledged 
leaders in the new land should expect from their friends and fellow 
townsmen recognition in church as well as secular affairs, and it 
was just here that the difficulty in assigning seats in the new 
church presented itself, and proved a source of more animosities 
than any problem encountered by the colonists. It was left to a 
committee, finally, but one has to smile at reading that another 
committee was chosen to select seats for the first or larger com- 
mittee. How this committee should proceed was not entirely a 
matter of its own choice. One record instructs the committee 
"to dignify and seat the meetinghouse according to the personal 
and real estate and having reference to age and honor." Another 
committee was instructed "to give men their dignity in their 
sitting in proportion to their minister's rate they pay, allowing one 
poll to a rate, making such allowance for age as they shall think 
proper, except where they are tenants, and in these cases to act 
their best judgment." 

Rev. William Smith, who had inherited a farm in this vicinity, 
but who was a settled pastor in Weymouth, is believed by historian 



Past and Present 39 



W. R. Cutter to have been the minister engaged by the committee 
to provide preaching, and Wyman's ''Histor}- of Cambridge " says, 
"A Mr. Smith was preaching here in 1734," but it was not until 
February 1, 1735, that the first church in Arhngton was "opened 
and consecrated." Rev. ^Ir. Appleton, minister of the First 
Parish in Cambridge, was the central figure in this dedicatory 
service. 

It seems to have been an easier matter to build a church than 
to select a minister to preside over the little flock. Time and 
again failure was encountered. 

On Wednesday, Oct. 8, 1735, the church had a "day of fasting, 
humiliation, and prayer " to assist them in making a decision on 
this important matter of "settling an orthodox minister," without 
the prayer of the petition being granted; and two other similar 
"wrestlings in prayer" had no better results. A Mr. Thomas 
Skinner of Harvard University was chosen, but his answer not 
being satisfactory, he was passed over. ilr. Joseph Gardner, 
chosen in 1737, finally declined the service, and a like fate attended 
the effort to secure ^Ir. Daniel Rogers. In 1738 the venerable 
John Hancock of Lexington, with Revs. Appleton, Storer, and 
Turell, attended a day of fasting and prayer at Menotomy, and as 
a result, a unanimous vote to invite ~\Ir. Thomas Prentiss to become 
pastor was passed April 23, 1739, but he in turn declined, having 
accepted the call from the First Parish in Charlestown. This 
persistence could have but one ending, and on May 21, 1739, 
Samuel Cooke was unanimously chosen minister and accepted the 
call to become the first pastor. 

On Sunday, Sept. 9, 1739, the church of the Second Precinct of 
Cambridge was formally organized. Rev. John Hancock of Lexing- 
ton presiding and accepting the letters of dismissal from other 
churches presented by the following: 

Samuel Cooke, pastor. William Russell, Ebenezer and Elisabeth Swan, 
Jonathan and Ruth Butterfield, Ephraim and Sarah Frost, Joseph and Rachel 
Adams, John and Lydia Cutter, William Winship, John and Elizabeth 
Winship, Joseph and Anna Winship, Henry and Martha Dunster, Wilham 
and Ruth Dickson, Ebenezer and Sarah Prentice, Ephraim and Mary Frost, 
Jr., Joseph Adams, Jr., John Fillebrown, John and Mary Williams, John 
and Ehsabeth Swan, Francis and Ehsabeth Locke, Thomas and Chary 



40 Town of Arlington 

Wellington, Thomas and Mary Frost, Jonathan and Rachel Butterfield, Jr., 
William and Anne Cutter, Thomas and Patience Hall, Joseph and Mary- 
Russell, Josiah and Sarah Robbins, Tliomas and Sarah Williams, Walter 
Russell, Jr., Samuel Frost, William Withington. 

Sarah Cool (widow), Saraii Hill, ]\Iehitabel Cutter, Elisabeth Russell, Alice 
Cutler, Hannah Winship, Anne Cutter (widow), Anna Fessenden (widow), 
Sarah Wilson, Sarah Russell, Elisabeth Carteret, Elisabeth Cutter (widow), 
Lydia Reed, Anna Cutter, Martha Wilson, Mercy Perry (widow), Jane Cutter, 
Ruth Robbins, Deborah Robbins, Sarah Smith, Mary Butterfield, Rebecca 
Hill, Sarah Harrington, Abigail Cutter, Jr., Misses Mary Swan, Elizabeth 
Locke, Deborah Chrissen, Rebecca Adams, Martha Frost, Abigail Cutter, 
Elisabeth Winship. 

These thirty men and fifty-three women subscribed to the 
formal and decidedly formidable creed, and on the following 
Wednesday, Mr. Samuel Cooke was ordained and installed as 
minister over this company of eighty-three men and women. The 
churches at Cambridge, Lexington, Medford, and Watertown were 
represented at this council by their ministers. 

The communion table of the new church was supplied with a 
service through the gift of twenty-five pounds from the First 
Parish of Cambridge, and six pounds from jNIrs. Rebecca Whitte- 
more of JMedford. This generosity on the part of the donors was 
formally recognized by a vote of thanks passed at a meeting held 
Dec. 7. The residents of Charlestown casting in their lot with the 
people of Menotomy in founding the First Parish, continued to 
bear what was, to a degree at least, a double burden of paying 
certain taxes in both Charlestown and Cambridge until 1762. 

Sept. 28, 1761, it was voted by the First Parish in Menotomy: 

To prefer a petition to the Great and General Court, praying 
that we (with those of our neighbors belonging to several adjacent 
towns, who are desirous of being joined to us) may with their 
lands and estates be incorporated with us into a separate district. 

The petition recited: 

That they were more than twenty years since made a precinct; 
that they labored under great inconvenience by being obliged to 
attend on training-days and at town meetings, some at Cam- 
bridge and some at Charlestown, to which towns they belong; and 
by being taxed towards the support of the grammar schools in said 
towns; that others on the near borders — Woburn, Lexington, 



Past and Present 41 



Watertown, and iMedford — whose names were attached to the 
petition, desired to join with them in forming a separate town- 
ship. 

The General Court, by an act defining Hnes and imposing con- 
ditions, granted the petition as far as it related to Charlestown 
and Cambridge territory, and the Northwest Precinct voted to 
accept the act, but afterwards evidently reconsidered its action 
because it did not include the other territory named and did not 
confer privileges sought, as the citizens of Arlington never took 
advantage of the act. 

Any surprise that the granting of township rights to a commu- 
nity numerous enough to seek them was so long and strenuously 
opposed, not by the people from whom separation was sought, 
but by legislative authority, is removed when the facts are under- 
stood. Every town had the right to send a representative to the 
General Court, and the English governors much disliked to give 
their assent to the forming of a new town, for a new town implied 
a new legislator who was only too likely to set himself in oppo- 
sition to the representative of the King even in that early day. 
On the petition presented by the inhal^itants of jMenotomy in 
1762 to become a separate township, it was voted to allow the 
forming of a district, but as this did not allow representation, 
while conferring nearly all the rights and privileges enjoyed by 
towns, this act was rejected and the village or parish remained a 
part of Cambridge. 

Records by which population or valuation of this section in 
earlier times can be fixed or estimated are exceedingly meager, 
but one item in Page's "History of Cambridge " furnishes a starting 
point. He says that in 1777 jNIenotomy had 122 assessed white 
polls; also one black; that the territory contained 4,345 acres and 
118 rods. 

The Rev. Samuel Cooke's dwelling stood until 1871, when it was 
removed to make room for the present parsonage of the Orthodox 
Congregational parish. Parson Cooke's original purchase was 
from Jason Russell and embraced the land where now stands the 
Orthodox Congregational church, the cottage of ^Ir. George Y. 
Wellington, Dr. Andrew F. Reed's house, also that of Wellington 



42 Town of Arlington 

A. Hardy, on the south side of Maple street; estate of George 
Swan; Orthodox Congregational parsonage; two houses belonging 
to Deacon Myron Taylor. Robbins estate and Old Cemetery 
form northern boundary. Before this old landmark was turned 
over to its purchaser to be removed, some very important relics 
connected with it were disposed of. Two window shutters pierced 
by British bullets on the 19th of April, 1775, were sold to Mr. 
Frank Brooks of Medford, who paid $25 for the same. A window 
quite thickly marked with signatvires cut with diamonds of more 
or less important personages visiting the house in former years, 
ultimately came into the possession of Robbins Library and 
has been turned over to the custody of Arlington Historical 
Society. 

Rev. Samuel Cooke was a native of Hadley in this state and was 
born January 11, 1709. Consequently he was not quite thirty 
years of age when he was ordained to the gospel ministry. He 
entered Harvard College with the class of 1731 and graduated in 
1735. He taught school in Roxbury for a year, was private tutor 
for Colonel Royall at the old mansion known as the "Roy all 
Home" in Medford, then began preaching, at intervals occupying 
the pulpit at Menotomy, Marlboro, and Roxbury. 

His salary at his first parish here was fixed at two hundred and 
sixty pounds, depreciated currency, one half at settlement and 
the other half at end of first year. Further reference to the work 
of this old-time pastor, especially during 
the Revolutionary war period, will be 
found in the section devoted to "Militarj' 
History." In this connection extracts 
from a sketch of his life, written by 
Parson Cooke in 1778, are appended. 

Samuel Cooke, born in Hadley, January 

11th, 1709, was the son of Mr. Samuel and 

Mrs. Anne Cooke; the grandson on his 

father's side to Aaron Cooke, Esq., and 

REV. SAMUEL COOKE Sarah Cooke; and the great-grandson of 

Major Cooke, of Northampton, and of 

William and Sarah Westwood, of Hadley, who came from Old 

England. . . . The estate in England after some time my 




Past and Present 43 



grandfather sold, but employing a knave, lost it. The estate at 
Hartford he gave to his son Aaron. That in Hadley to his sons 
Westwood and Samuel, and to his son Moses his estate from his 
own father in Northampton. . . . 

^ly father by his will left his homestead at my mother's 
decease wholly to my brother Jonathan in lieu of my education. 
The rest of his estate was equally divided between my brother 
and me — we paying legacies to our sisters. 

I began to learn Latin in 1720, but being then the only son 
I was called off to the farm till a brother, born almost out of 
season, and growing, allowed me to resume my study in the year 
1729. I entered Harvard College in 1731 — had my first degree, 
1735 — kept school part of a year at Roxbury ■ — one year and 
a part was in the College Buttery — Nov., 1737, went to Col. 
Royall's, Medford, for a year to instruct his son — and in 1738 
returned to College. I then preached six months at IMarlborough, 
and six at Roxbury and Menotomy. In May, 1739, I received 
a call to settle in the ministry in this place. In July, I gave 
my answer, and on September 12, 1739, I was ordained the first 
minister of this Second Precinct in Cambridge. . . I boarded 
the first year in the family of Mr. Joseph Adams, at 10s. per 
week — silver being then 26s. per ounce. 

On May 12, 1740, I bought one acre of ground of Mr. Jason 
Russell for house, which was raised July 17, at the expense of 
the people — The frame being given, and the cellar and well dug 
and stoned gratis, and the boards and shingles carted from Sud- 
bury and Billerica free of charge to me. 

I married Oct. 2, 1740, Miss Sarah Porter, daughter of Mr. 
Samuel and Mrs. Anne Porter, of Hadley, and on Oct. 16, I 
brought her to my house. On Aug. 2, 1741, a son was born to 
us, and on the 9th he was baptized Samuel, and on the 14th 
inst. Samjiel died. On the 22d the mother died, both dying of 
the throat distemper. 

I married September 23, 1742, Anna Cotton, daughter of the 
Rev. Mr. John and Mrs. Mary Cotton, of Newtown. On the 30th 
she came home. [A lengthy paragraph mentions births and 
deaths in the family. — Ed.] February 12, 1761, my wife Anna 
died, aged 38, after having been mother of eleven children; 
seven survived her, but must follow. 

I married 25 Nov. 1762, ]\Irs. Lucy, rehct of the late Rev. 
Nicholas Bowes, of Bedford, and daughter of the late Rev. John 
and Elizabeth Hancock, of Lexington. On Sept. 21, 1768, my 
wife Lucy died. 

Few families have met with more and greater change by 



44 



Town of Arlington 



Death in equal time. But let us not tarry then — it is of the 
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed — the father is con- 
tinued, and lives parted in old age. Seven out of thirteen 
remain. Let us prepare to follow — be ye also ready. 

Parson Cooke died June 4, 1783, and was succeeded by Rev. 
Thaddeus Fiske, who lived to be ninety-three, his death occurring 
Nov. 14, 1855. He had seen five pastors installed over his old 
parish before his death. 

The accompanying picture of the "Parson Cooke House," 




FIRST PARSONAGE — REV. SAMUEL COOKE 

Built I 740 

copied from a photograph in possession of the Historical Society, 
proves there was ample warrant for the statement previously 
made, that "in stately proportions it was second only to the 
church over which its owner presided as minister. " 

This building was removed to Warren street and used as a tene- 
ment house for a few years. It was destroyed by fire Dec. 19, 
1881. 

A legend regarding this piece of property, and perhaps contain- 
ing a larger element of truth than is frequently the case with items 
of history not duly authenticated, is worth a place hei'e. One of 



Past and Present 



45 



Miss Anna Bradshaw's verbal restrictions on her gift of her entire 
■worldly possessions to trustees of Arlington Orthodox Congrega- 
tional Parish, was that the homestead should be torn do^^■n when 
the time came for its removal, and not sold to be made use of by 
a certain class of tenants she named, as some other buildings 
had been during her lifetime. The writer remembers that at 
intervals a story to the effect that "Anna Bradshaw's house is 
haunted" came to his ears with more or less of thrilling detail 
within a few vears after its removal, and that for a long time before 




PARSON FISKE HOUSE 

Built I 791 



it was burned it had stood empty for lack of tenants; also inti- 
mations later that perhaps this was another instance of selling a 
building to an insurance company. 

The picture of Parson Fiske's house given here is a further illus- 
tration of the esteem in which the minister of early times was held. 
Like the other, the original adorns the walls of the Historical 
Society room in Robbins Library. 

This dwelling stood on land now divided by Pelham terrace, and 
the house lot extended on the other side of Pleasant street to Spy 
Pond. When the late Hon. Joseph S. Potter bought the portions 



46 



Town of Arlington 



of this estate not previously sold, this historic old building was 
torn down. Deacon Henry Mott of the Orthodox Congregational 
church (he also served the town many years as selectman and 
assessor), who bought a portion of this land and built the house 
now occupied by W. H. H. Tuttle, for a time used the well of the 
Fiske estate which was located on his purchase. 

The Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, in an account of himself and ancestry 
appended to a "Sermon delivered at West Cambridge, April 13, 

1828," at the close of his 
ministry, and published at 
Boston by Charles C. Little 
and James Brown, 1843, 
states, "I was born on the 
22d of June, 1762. At the 
age of seventeen, I began to 
prepare for college under the 
tuition of Rev. Mr. Samuel 
Woodward, who was an able 
instructor and linguist, the 
minister of Weston, my native 
town. I was offered l)y him 
for examination, and was 
admitted a student of Har- 
vard University in July, 1781, and graduated in 1785." 

After he had taken his degree, he taught a grammar school in 
Lexington, and boarded in the family of the Rev. Jonas Clark. He 
returned to the L'niversity in Cam]3ridge, and studied divinity 
under Rev. Prof. Wigglesworth, and was licensed to preach Aug. 8, 
1786, by the "Association of jMinisters in and about Cambridge." 
He preached his first sermon in his native town, and after supply- 
ing several vacant parishes, was invited in March, 1787, to jDreach 
to the Second Congregational Church and Society in West Cam- 
bridge, then called ^Nlenotomy, now Arlington. On July 16, 1787, 
he received a call to settle as their minister. "I hesitated." he 
says, "for some time, whether to decline or accept their invitation. 
The parish was ^'ery small and poor, and considerably involved in 
debt, having been destitute of a settled minister about six vears 




REV. THADDEUS FISKE, D.D. 
Second Pastor First Parish Church 



Past and Present 4" 



and were in a broken state, very much reduced in numbers and 
propert}'. It was generally thought doubtful whether they would 
be able to support a minister, or pay the small salary they offered 
me. . . . But it was feared by many, and so stated to me, that if 
I gave a negative answer, the church and society would not make 
any further effort to obtain a minister, and would be broken up and 
dissolved." 

He accepted their invitation, and was ordained April 23, 1788. 
The proceedings in reference to his settlement are entered else- 
where in this work. Having cast his lot with the ''Second Church 
and Congregation in Cambridge," he immediately endeavored to 
allay the difficulties that obstructed their prosperity. He began 
by relinquishing a part of his salary. To supply the deficiency of 
his support, he boarded and instructed children and youth, and 
some he prepared for admission to college; he instructed many 
daughters of his parishioners, and other young ladies of the 
neighboring towns. 

Though this employment occujjied much of his time, yet he was 
enabled to perform the usual duties of a minister, and to "study 
and write and preach" upwards of twelve hundred sermons during 
his ministry. He visited and taught his flock from house to house, 
gave religious instruction to youth, and continued the practice 
adopted by his predecessor, the Rev. Samuel Cooke, of meeting the 
children annually, and oftener, for the pur])ose of examining and 
assisting them in their knowledge of the Assembly's Catechism, 
which was universally taught then by their parents and heads of 
families. Sabbath schools were designed at first to aid this prac- 
tice. He assisted in defraying the current expenses of the parish: 
he contributed fifty dollars toward furnishing a new house of wor- 
ship, built in 1805; he remitted annually, during his ministry, the 
parish taxes of many individuals who were either unable or un- 
willing to pay their annual assessments; he gave fifty dollars in aid 
and support of a singing school for the service of the house of 
worship, and ten dollars toward purchasing an octavo-viol for the 
use of the singers; had a set of curtains put in the fo reseat of the 
front gallery for the singers' convenience, and the pulpit painted, 
at his expense. He commenced, in 1806, the establishment of 



48 Town of Arlington 

a social libraiy, and took the entire care of it in his house, and 
dehvered books to the proprietors for more than twenty years 
without compensation. This and much more he did; and hence, 
in a few years, "the appearance of the town, and the morals and 
habits of the people," were changed for the better, and ''its 
favorable aspect induced many individuals and families of other 
towns to come and settle in the place, and aid and share in its 
growing prosperity." He received from his people at the same 
time "many tokens of their respect and benevolence," and en- 
joyed his full share of "their regards and affections." 

In 1788 the Rev. J\Ir. Fiske became a member of the Board of 
Overseers of Harvard University; in 1821 he was honored with the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity by Columbia College, New York. He 
voluntarily resigned his pastoral office and charge April 23, 1828, 
leaving a church of about one hundred members and a congregation 
of about five hundred souls for his successor. 

The old-time pastor was in a broad sense an autocrat, and the 
house assigned to him or owned by him vied with the church not 
only as a social and religious center but also in size. This was 
natural. As a rule he was the only man in the community whose 
education extended beyond the rudimental stage, and legal and 
medical advice was not unfrequently sought from the old-time 
pastor, who evidently was expected to know everything. 

Then again, parish and precinct being synonymous it is easy to 
understand what a preponderance of influence the acknowledged 
head of the church was likely to exert, with his stately bearing, 
his correct and neat attire, coupled with the stilted and florid 
style of speaking and writing then in vogue. Be it said to the 
everlasting credit of these noble men — noble in spite of faults and 
a lack of Christian toleration that to us of today seems strange 
with men of such broad and high views on other subjects — that 
with rare exceptions they wore their honors gracefully and exer- 
cised authority with discretion and with Christian humility, 
except where matters of church discipline and upholding the 
"creed" were concerned. 

Turning over the records for material to be used in these pages 
in picturing the civil life of the Second Precinct of Cambridge, it 



Past and Present 49 



is apparent at every stage that Rev. Samuel Cooke as the first 
pastor, and Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, D.D., his successor, measured 
up to the highest standards of what a pastor shoukl be to the 
church over which he ministered and as a leader of men intrusted 
with the administration of secular affairs. 

The men who united in formation of the First Parish church 
of Arlington in 1735 were men of means and householders, each 
owning large tracts of land within the precinct lines. It is 
interesting to note that a considerable portion of the Swan grant 
is still held by direct descendants, and that the Cutters are now 
cultivating portions of the land where the first settlers of that 
name had a home. 

The mill built b}' Captain Cooke was responsible for the build- 
ing of the street now called Pleasant Mystic street owed its 
construction to the fact that the mill in Menotomy was the only 
place where Woburn people could conveniently go to have their 
corn ground. Massachusetts avenue was constructed for the 
convenience of Cambridge people in reaching the grazing ground 
and hay fields and at length became the great thoroughfare. 
There is every reason to believe that the road to Medford is 
nearly contemporaneous with the Cambridge, Watertown, and 
Woburn roads, as Governor Winthrop and M. Cradock were 
granted by the General Court in 1633, "the w^eare at Menotomy." 
and Wyman's "History of Charlestown " says, "This weare or 
fishing dam was in ^Mystic River, at the outlet of the pond." A 
road south and north to it is only a reasonable supposition; that 
it was used as "a way to the only mill in all the territory" would 
be natural. As mills were erected to the eastward not many 
years after Captain Cooke built his mill, this way was less and 
less in use, owing to the fact that IMystic River at this point was 
only fordable at certain stages of the tide, and the travel was 
not sufficient to successfully demand a bridge. 

In 1736, 1738, and 1743 the town of ^ledford was indicted for 
not building a bridge over Mystic River, and successfully made a 
defense that "the ford is easy and convenient and Medford 
people seldom or never travel that way; " but in 1746 a bridge 



50 Town of Arlington 

was built and has been maintained until now, the present sub- 
stantial structure having been put up by Medford and Arlington, 
replacing a worn out wooden bridge, in 1893. 

Early in the history of the town it became the stopping place 
of farmers from the west and northwest on their way to Cam- 
bridge, Boston, and Charlestown Avith produce. Arlington was 
at a convenient distance from Boston to make a stop before 
completing the journey, and "accommodation for man and beast" 
being a natural demand it was met by enterprising citizens who 
here opened taverns, some of which became historic. The Black 
Horse Tavern was located where the house numbered 333 Massa- 
chusetts avenue now stands. "Cooper Tavern" was on the 
corner of Massachusetts avenue and jMedford street. The "Tufts 
Tavern" is still standing. All these and others were built long 
before Arlington was incorporated. 

The preceding pages contain all important data gathered for 
Cutter's "History of Arlington," the later researches of Hon. 
James P. Parmenter, and what has come to light in the past 
ten years through donations to Arlington Historical Society, 
up to the few years preceding the opening of the war of the 
Revolution, with the single exception of what was done in the 
way of public school education. As these items form the basis 
of a special department of this volume, including them would 
be unnecessary repetition. 

All the historical facts now obtainable are confined to that 
which is stored in the church records or buried in the mass accu- 
mulated through the centuries in the Registry of Deeds, neither 
of which afford hardly glimpses of the every-day life of the" people 
of Menotomy. The records of conveyances of real estate show 
the farms to have been often of more than considerable size. 
The way the church was sustained and public education provided 
for proves the inhabitants to have been fairly well to do. The 
dams erected on Mill Brook suggest there was considerable of 
business enterprise beyond farming, which was the main industry. 

In closing his sketch of this period of our history, Judge Par- 
menter says, "For the most part the years seem to have gone by 
monotonously enough until at last the day came when History 



Past and Present 51 



passed through our streets and the quiet country people took 
their place among those who were first to face death in the 
defense of the liberties of the nation." 

Parson Cooke was intimately associated with Parson Clark 
of Lexington, and like him was implicitly trusted by Hancock, 
Adams, and their associates. The sermons he delivered at this 
period "glowed with the spirit of resistance to oppression," and 
when the clash came on that memorable 19th of April, 1775, it 
was with difficulty he was restrained from taking an active part. 
Before nightfall, however, the parsonage was turned into a 
hospital, and then came duties which he shared to the full. 

As early as 1771 a trainband had been organized in Menotomy 
with Ephraim Frost, captain, Daniel Brown, lieutenant, William 
Adams, ensign. Before the breaking out of hostilities a full 
company of " Minute-men," with Benjamin Locke in command, 
was formed here, which came into active service on that day 
and at subsequent periods while the British remained in Boston. 
It is more than probable, if the distinction is not here drawn, 
that in speaking of "militia" and "Minute-men" in referring 
to the earlier defenders of the republic as has already 
occurred, the two organizations may be either confounded or 
considered one and the same thing. The militia of the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay was established by an act passed in 1693, 
and seemed to meet all requirements of the situation. 

When the colonists took matters into their own hands and 
established a Provincial Congress in 1774, one of its earliest 
acts was to place the militia in a position to be in readiness for 
the impending contest with the mother country. This act 
provided that all male persons from sixteen to sixty, competent 
to bear arms, should duly attend all musters and military exer- 
cises, and provided penalties for avoiding this service. It also 
provided that if any person lacked the money to furnish him- 
self with musket and ammunition, merchantable produce might 
be proffered the clerk of the company, who was authorized to 
sell it and provide the necessary arms. In case any were too 
poor to even supply merchandise, the arms were to be furnished 
from the town stock. A stock of powder was to be provided 



52 Town of Arlington 

by the selectmen, and renewed as occasion required. It was 
men thus organized that joined in the expeditions against 
Canada and illustrated their qualifications as soldiers at Louis- 
burg and at Crown Point. 

On the other hand the '"Minute-men," while members of the 
militia, were those who pledged themselves to the Committee 
of Safety, nearly six months before April 19, 1775, to be in 
readiness to respond at the shortest notice to any emergency 
call, and thus the promptness with which they assembled in 
response to the alarm on that memorable occasion is explained. 
It was in reality an organization of the younger and more active 
men within the mihtia, with officers of their own choice to com- 
mand them, banded together for special service. The ''Minute- 
men" were organized to meet an emergency, and having met 
it, as a separate organization ceased to exist. 

Few entries relating to the war appear on the parish record. 
In 1778 it was voted that the inhabitants be divided into fifteen 
messes, in proportion to their valuation, the design evidently 
being that the "messes" should be equal in property. Each 
mess had to furnish or support a soldier, and the expense was 
shared among the members according to their means, ^''arious 
committees were chosen to carry out the scheme. Some light 
is thrown on the enormous depreciation of currency by the 
amounts appropriated for the minister's salary. During the 
early years of the war it remains at £75. In 1778-9, £300 is voted. 
The next year it is £1,200; and finally at the close of 1780 it is 
placed at £3,000. After the surrender of Cornwallis it falls back 
to £120, and then £100. 

The closing years of Parson Cooke's life (he died in 1783) were 
embittered by religious controversies forced upon him among the 
people of the parish. Rigid and unyielding where he deemed 
the interests: of truth were concerned, the growing spirit of lib- 
eralism made him all the more determined to resist the under- 
mining of the old unity of faith among his people, which an 
increasing laxity in morals and refusing to yield to discipline 
indicated, and his pulpit utterances gave no uncertain sound. 
But more than all was the actual establishment of a Baptist 



Past and Present 53 



church in his own parish two years before his death. It was a 
sign the old order of things was coming to an end in Menotomy; 
that his church could no longer exist as the sole center of religious 
instruction; that his teachings must cease to command universal 
assent and reverence. It is perhaps well that he did not live to 
a time when the disintegrating process had gone on still farther. 

The general poverty following the close of the war was shared 
by this community, and it was not until 1786 that the arrears of 
salary due the heirs of Parson Cooke was paid; then there was 
no end of trouble with the new Baptist society, the members of 
which resisted paying taxes to the First Parish in addition to 
supporting their own church, and including as it did some of the 
more wealthy and influential people of the town; again, no min- 
ister could be secured to take the pastorate of the First Parish. 
Finally in 1787, a unanimous call was extended to Rev. Thaddeus 
Fiske ; he accepted the office, and began his long pastorate of 
forty years. In preceding pages his connection with the church 
and town has been given due prominence. 

The introduction of service pipes to convey water for domestic 
purposes in 1799, the establishment here of the famous Whitte- 
more Card Mill the same year, the organization of the First Baptist 
parish of Arlington in 1780, with the settlement of a minister in 
1783, together with some other minor events occurring between 
the settlement of Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, D.D., over First Parish 
and the incorporation of the town in 1807, are told with sufficient 
detail under special departments. 

A single large event remains to be noted before proceeding 
with the story of the town of Arlington, namely the erection of 
a new church by the First Parish, which was dedicated March 
20, 1805. The parish had outgrown the seating capacity of the 
old church. It has previously been said that an attempt to add 
more pews was defeated in 1747, but in 1755 several were put in 
which reduced space for benches. Additional seats in the gallery 
failed to relieve the pressure. Then again the building seems to 
have become unsatisfactory in spite of alterations and repairs and 
the building of a new belfry. After the usual discussion and 
delay incident to securing harmonious action, it was finally 



54 



Town of Arlington 



decided, at the meeting held Jan. 9, 1804, to build a new 
meetinghouse. 

The main building was sold (at auction) to William Whittemore 
for S44(); the tower to John Tufts for SI 15; the porch to Samuel 
Watson for S75 — a total of $630. Mr. Whittemore moved the 
building to a lot opposite the Parson Cooke estate and converted 
it into a three story dwelling. Later it was sold to his brother 
Samuel of New York, who in turn disposed of it to Ammi Cutter. 
Mr. Lombard married a daughter of Mr. Cutter and came into 
possession of it. In 1851 Lombard sold it to Abel G. Peck. A 
picture of the old church as it is today and how it was finally 
disposed of, is told in Chapter III. 

The new house was raised without accident in July, 1804, and 
dedicated March 20, 1805. It had the same general appearance as 

many meetinghouses of that 
day — an oblong building 
painted white, having in front 
a porch of four pillars, and 
on top a short square tower 
surmounted by a belfry, the 
dome shape roof of which 
supported a little spire with, a 
vane — still a familiar type of 
church architecture in New 
England villages. It contained 
ninety-two pews on the floor 
and fourteen in the galleries. 

The prospect of a new build- 
ing seems to have excited the 
zeal of the musical members of the parish to improve the singing 
on Sundays. There had been a choir for a considerable time, at 
any rate since 1775, when William Cutter was chosen by the 
parish to lead the singing, with two seats in the front gallery set 
apart for the singers. In 1796 instrumental music was added in 
the shape of a bass viol, to the accompaniment of which the choir 
sang the hymns in Tate and Brady's collection. In 1804 it 
became desirable to establish the Northwest Parish of Cam- 




FIRST PARISH CHURCH 
Built I 804-5 



Past and Present 



55 



bridge Singing Society, for, as was said in the preamble of the 
constitution, tlie spirit of music in public devotion "is become 
somewhat languid, and its genius seems about to withdraw." 
Accordingly the society was formed for the laudable purpose of 
reviving the spirit and improving the members in the art of 
music. "Justice our principle, Reason our guide, and Honor our 
law." It was provided that every member should sit in the 
singing seats on Sundays when he was at the meeting. The 
society lasted three years, and was immediately succeeded by the 
West Cambridge Musical Society, which continued until 1817. 
They met in the winter months for practice, and we may hope 
were able to bring back "the retiring genius of music." 

As a fitting conclusion of this section a full list of people serving 
in public office during the " Precinct" period is given as follows: 

PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE-MEN. 



Heiuy Dunster, 1733, 1734. 
James Cutler, 1733, 1736, 1737, 

1739, 1740, 1750-52. 
Ephraim Frost, 1733, 1734, 1738, 

1741, 1749. 
Joseph Adams, 1733-35, 1739-41, 

1753. 
Jonathan Butterfield, Jr., 1733, 

1736, 1739, 1748, 1749. 
John Fillebrown, 1734, 1738. 
Samuel Whittemore, 1734, 1737, 

1738, 1740, 1747. 
William Russell, 1735. 
John Winship, 1735, 1737, 1741, 

1742. 
John Butterfield, 1735, 1737, 1743- 

45. 
John Swan, 1735. 
John Cutter, 1736, 1738-46. 
Abraham Hill, 1736. 
Walter Russell, 1736. 
Samuel Cutter, 1737. 
Thomas Wellington, 1737. 
Capt. Philip Carteret, 1738, 1739, 

1743, 1746, 1750, 1751 1756-58, 

1760. 



Seth Reed, 1740, 1752-55, 1761- 
63, 1765-67 (dismissed and 
thanks voted for past ser- 
vice). 

William Dickson, 1741. 

Joseph Russell, 1742, 1747, 1759, 
1764. 

Nathaniel Francis, 1744, 1745, 1748, 
1749. 

Francis Locke, 1746, 1747. 

Francis Bowman, 1748. 

Zechariah Hill, 1750, 1751. 

Thomas Hall, 1752-55. 

Gershom Cutter, 1754-58 (1775 — 
declined). 

Ephraim Frost, Jr., 1756, 1757, 
1759, 1760. 

Jason Russell, 1758, 1761-63. 

Joseph Adams, Jr., 1759, 1760, 
1765-67. 

Joseph Wellington, 1761-63. 

Capt. Thomas Adams, 1764. 

William Cutler, 1764. 

Daniel Brown, 1765-67 (1772, 1781 
— declined). 

Patten Russell, 1767-70. 



56 



Town of Arlington 



William Bowman, 1768-70 (1771 — 

excused). 
Samuel Frost, 1768, 1769 (1770 — 

excused) . 
Samuel Locke, 1770 (excused). 
Ensign William Adams, 1770 — 

declined; 1773, 1774 (1775, Capt. 

— declined). 
Nehemiah Cutter, 1770-72. 
Walter Russell, 1770 (in room of 

Patten Russell, who had moved 

out of town), 1771, 1773-77 

(1781 — decUned). 
Ebenezer Swan, 1771 (1772 — 

excused) . 
Samuel Cutter, 1772 (1781— de- 
clined) . 
Ammi Cutter, 1772, 1791. 
PhiUp Bemis, 1773-75 (1776 — 

excused). 
Benjamin Locke, 1775 (1776 — 

excused) . 
Ephraim Frost, Jr., 1776-85. 
Gershom Cutter, Jr., 1776, 1777. 
Thomas Whittemore, 1778-84. 



Philemon Russell, 1778-80 (1781 — 

declined), 1782-84. 
Amos Warren, 1781 — declined; 

1784, 1785. 
Thomas Russell, 1781 — dechned; 

1785 — declined. 
Benjamin Piper, 1781. 
John Adams, 1785— dechned; 1792, 

1793, 1802-05. 
Samuel Butterfield, 1785, 1786 

(1787 — dechned). 
Jeduthun Welhngton, 1786-90, 

1797-1801. 
Seth Wym.an, 1786-90. 
George Prentice, 1787-90, 1797-1805. 
Samuel Locke, 1791-93. 
Phihp Whittemore, 1791. 
James Russell, 1792, 1793, 1806. 
Capt. Solomon Peirce, 1794, 1795. 
Benjamin Cutter, 1794-1801. 
Seth Frost, 1794-96. 
Amos Frost, 1796. 
Daniel Adams, 1802-07. 
Jonathan Whittemore, 1806, 1807. 
Noah Russell, 1807. 



PRECINCT CLERKS. 

John Cutter, 1733-65 — thanks ex- (1772 — declined serving — 

tended him in 1767 for many thanks voted for past services), 

years' service. 1782-84. 

Ammi Cutter, 1766, 1767, 1772, Walter Russell, 1773-81. 

1784, 1785. John Cutter, Jr., 1786-88. 

Thomas Hall, Jr., 1768, 1769. Samuel Locke, 1789-1805. 

WiHiam W^hittemore, 1770, 1771 Thomas Russell, Jr., 1806, 1807. 



PRECINCT TREASURERS. 



John Fillebrown, 1733. 

John Cutter, 1734. 

Joseph Adams, 1735-50 — thanks 

extended to him in 1767 for past 

service. 
Lieut. Samuel Whittemore, 1751- 

57 — thanks were extended to 

him, 1767, for past service. 
John Cutter, Jr., 1758-61. 



Dea. Joseph Adams, 1762-67 — 
thanked, 1767, treasurer five 
years. Continued in office, 
1768-81. In 1788 compensation 
was allowed him for 19 years' 
service as Treasurer. 

Lieut. Samuel Cutter, 1782. 

Capt. Wilham Adams, 1783, 1784 
(1785 — dechned). 



Past and Present 



57 



Lieut. Daniel Brown, 1785 (de- Samuel Whittemore, Jr., 1786 (1787 

clined). — excused). 

William Whittemore, 1785 (1786— Samuel Locke, 1787 — refused; 

excused). 1788 — excused. 

Seth Wyman, 1786 — excused. Jeduthun Wellington, 1787-92. 

Ebenezer Hall, 1793-1807. 



PRECINCT ASSESSORS. 



Ephraim Frost, 1733, 1734, 1736, 

1738, 1741, 1749. 
Joseph Adams, 1733, 1734, 1753. 
Jonathan Butterfield, Jr., 1733, 

1734, 1736, 1739, 1747-49. 
John Butterfield, 1735, 1743-45. 
Gershom Cutter, Jr., 1735. 
Thomas Hall, 1735, 1752-55. 
James Cutler, 1736, 1737, 1739, 

1740, 1750-52. 
John Cutter, 1737, 1741, 1743-45. 
Samuel Cutter, 1737. 
Samuel Whittemore, 1737 (in place 

of Samuel Cutter, dec'd), 1738, 

1740, 1747. 
Capt. Philip Carteret, 1738, 1739, 

1743, 1746, 1750, 1751, 1756-58, 

1760. 
Seth Reed, 1740, 1752-55, 1761-63, 

1765-67. 
WiUiam Dickson, 1741, 1742. 
John Win.ship, 1742. 
Gershom Cutter, Jr., 1742, 1754- 

58. 
Nathaniel Francis, 1744, 1745, 1748, 

1749. 
Francis Locke, 1746. 1747. 
Zechariah Hill, 1746, 1750, 1751. 
Joseph Russell, 1747, 1759, 1764. 
Francis Bowman, 1748. 
Ephraim Frost, Jr., 1756, 1757, 

1759, 1760. 
Jason Russell, 1758, 1761-63. 
Joseph Adams, Jr., 1759, 1760, 

1765-1767. 
Joseph WeUington, 1761-63. 
Capt. Thomas Adams, 1764. 
William Cutler, 1764. 
Daniel Brown, 1765-67. 



Patten Russell, 1767-70. 
William Bowman, 1768-70. 
Samuel Frost, 1768, 1769. 
Nehemiah Cutter, 1770-72. 
Walter Russell, 1770, 1771, 1773- 

77. 
Ebenezer Swan, 1771. 
Samuel Cutter, 1772. 
Ammi Cutter, 1772, 1791. 
Philip Bemis, 1773-75. 
Ens. WilHam Adams, 1773, 1774. 
Benjamin Locke, 1775. 
Ephraim Frost, Jr., 1776-85, 1794. 
Gershom Cutter, Jr., 1776, 1777. 
Thomas Whittemore, 1778-84. 
Philemon Russell, 1778-80, 1782- 

84. 
Benjamin Piper, 1781. 
Amos Warren, 1784, 1785. 
Thomas Russell, 1785 — declined. 
John Adams, 1785 — declined; 

1792, 1793, 1795, 1801, 1807. 
Samuel Butterfield, 1785, 1786. 
Jeduthun WelUngton, 1786-90, 

1794, 1796. 
Seth Wyman, 1786-90, 1794. 
George " Prentice, 1787-90, 1799, 

1800, 1803-05. 
Samuel Locke, 1791-93, 1795. 
Philip Whittemore, 1791. 
James Russell, 1792. 
Jonathan Perry, 1793. 
Benjamin Cutter, 1795, 1796, 1801, 

1802. 
Capt. Stephen Frost, 1796, 1797. 
Daniel Reed, 1797-99. 
Seth Frost, 1797, 1798. 
Ebenezer Hall, 1798-1800. 
James Cutter, 1799 — declined. 



58 



Town of Arlingto7i 



Ebenezer Cutter, 1800. 
David Hill, 1801, 1802. 
John Estabrook, 1801. 
Jonathan Whittemore, 1802. 



Ichabod Fessenden, 1803, 1804. 
Daniel Reed, 1803-07. 
Jonas Peirce, 1805-07. 
William Hill, Jr., 1806. 



PRECINCT COLLECTORS. 



John Winship, 1733. 

Ephraim Cook, 1734 — fined for 
faiHng to serve. 

Jason Winship, 1734. 

William Cutter, 1735. 

Zechariah Hill, 1736. 

Joseph Bemis, 1737. 

David Dunster, 1738 — fined for 
refusing to serve. 

John Fillebrown, 1738. 

William Butterfield, 1738. 

Moses Harrington, 1739. 

Walter Russell, Jr., 1740. 

James Cutler, Jr., 1741. 

Joseph Belknap, 1742 — fined. 

William Robbins, 1742. 

Samuel Swan, 1743. 

George Cutter, 1744. 

William Withington, 1745. 

William Winship, Jr., 1746. 

Francis Locke, 1747. 

Timothy Swan, 1748. 

Joseph Frost, 1749 — fined for not 
serving. 

Samuel Frost, 1749 (1771 — fined). 

Aaron Cutter, 1750. 

Joseph Russell, 1751. 

Richard Cutter, 1752. 

William Adams, 1753. 

Jason Dunster, 1754. 

Walter Dickson, 1755. 

Thomas Cutter, 1756. 

Samuel Locke, 1757. 

Jonathan Cutter, 1758. 

Patten Russell, 1759. 

Samuel Russell, 1760. 

John Swan, 1761. 

Jason Winship, Jr., 1762 — dis- 
missed; again chosen, 1766. 



Seth Russell, 1762, 1777, 1778. 

Benjamin Locke, 1763. 

Thomas Reed, 1764. 

Ephraim Cook, 1765. 

Samuel Swan, 1767 — dismissed. 

Ebenezer Prentice, 1767. 

WilHam Whittemore, 1768, 1769. 

Francis Locke, Jr., 1769. 

James Perry, 1770. 

Joseph Belknap, Jr., 1771. 

Walter Russell, 1772 — excused. 

Zechariah Hill, 1772. 

Samuel Cutter, Jr., 1773, 1774. 

Aaron Swan, 1774 — excused. 

Joshua Kendall, 1775 — excused. 

Joseph Wellington, 1775. 

William Cutler, 1776 — excused. 

Samuel Whittemore, Jr., 1776, 

1777. 
Samuel Hill, 1777, 1780. 
Amos. Warren, 1779 — excused. 

(A committee was chosen to hire 

a collector in 1779.) 
Wilham Cutter, 1781, 1785. 
Jeduthun Wellington, 1782. 
Jonathan Perry, 1783, 1790, 1791. 
Seth Stone, 1784, 1788 (the collec- 

torship set up at vendue, 1788). 
Dea. Joseph Adams, 1786. 
Enoch Wellington, 1787. 
Eben'r Hall (collector for Mr. 

Fiske's settlement), 1788. 
Noah Russell, 1789, 1804, 1805. 
George Prentice, 1792, 1795-1801, 

1806, 1807. 
Samuel Hunt, 1793. 
Lieut. James Russell, 1794. 
Ebenezer Cutter, 1802. 
Ebenezer Thompson, 1803. 



SECTION THREE 



ARLINGTON AS WEST CAMBRIDGE 



CHAPTER I 

1807-1837 

Population in 1810 917; in 1S20, 1,064; in 1830, 1,230. 



The town is incorporated. — Separation not opposed by Cambridge. — 
Reasons financial and political suggested as contributing causes. — - 
First town meeting. — Grand celebration July 4, 1808. — Population 
in 1807. — Whittemore Card Factory and other business enterprises. — 
Middlesex Turnpike controversy and its outcome. — The old stage 
coach. — Post office facilities. 

THOSE who have foHowed the course of this narrative from 
the beginning of separate church and precinct privileges 
granted to people having homes in this territory to this year 
1807, will recall that attempts to acquire these concessions met 
^^■ith strenuous opposition both from Cambridge and the General 
Court, and were frustrated; that it was the third movement 
to secure township rights that was crowned with success. 

When, sixty-five years after the first movement, it was deemed 
expedient to try to secure full township rights, a very different 
spirit was manifested by the mother town of Cambridge than 
at first or even later. A committee of that town cordially 
joined with the gentlemen chosen to represent the Northwest 
Precinct in the petition to the General Court, and not a sign 
of friction is discoverable in steps resulting in settling the boun- 
daries of the new town or adjusting the financial end of the 
transaction. 

Perhaps the fact that at the same time Cambridge was ar- 
ranging for the surrender of territory which later became the 

59 



60 Toivn of Arlington 



town of Brighton, and both proposed new towns were willing 
to assume a share in accordance with vahiation, in maintain- 
ing "the Great Bridge over Charles River," removed the main 
cause of opposition. This was the old Brighton bridge. The 
West Boston bridge was built by a corporation, and was not 
opened for travel until 1793. The obligation to bear a share 
in maintaining the old Brighton bridge was not removed until 
March 24, 1860, when the General Court passed the act which 
confines building and maintenance of bridges over Charles River 
to Cambridge and Boston. 

Political differences also may have paved the way for this 
divorce by mutual consent. Cambridge was strenuously op- 
posed to the course the national administration was pursuing, 
while citizens of ^lenotomy enthusiastically championed the 
anti-English course governing affairs at Washington. The 
events of the 19th of April, 1775, and subsequent burning of 
Charlestown were too fresh in the minds of these old patriots to be 
obliterated or even clouded over by financial losses Cambridge 
might be bearing because of the embargo, even if they were 
fellow townsmen. 

The committee intrusted with negotiations which culminated 
in the incorporation of Arlington consisted of ^lessrs. Jeduthan 
Wellington, George Prentiss, Samuel Butterfield, Samuel Locke, 
William Whittemore, Jr. 

The General Court of 1807, on February 27, passed an act 
creating West Cambridge (now Arlington) a separate township, 
to take effect June 1, 1807, as follows: 

Chapter 95. 

An Act to divide the Town of Cambridge, and to incorporate the Westerly 
Parish therein, as a separate Town, by the name of West Cambridge. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, 
in General Court Assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all that 
part of the Town of Cambridge, heretofore known as the second parish, and as 
described w'ithin the following bounds, together with the inhabitants thereon, 
be, and the same is hereby incorporated into a separate town, by the name 
of West Cambridge, viz., Beginning at Charlestown line, where the little river 
intersects the same, and running on a line in the middle of said little river, 
until it strikes Fresh Pond, so-called; thence west, ten degrees south, until 
it intersects the line of the town of Watertown; then on Watertown and 



Past and Present 61 



Waltliam line, until it strikes Lexington line; thence on Lexington line, until 
it strikes Woburn line; thence on Woburn line and Charlestown line, to the 
said little river, first mentioned. And the said town of West Cambridge, is 
hereby vested with all the powers and privileges, and shall also be subject to 
all the duties to which other corporate towns are entitled and subjected, by 
the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth: Provided however. That 
nothing in this Act shall be so construed as to impair the right or privilege of 
tiie congregational minister of the said town of West Cambridge, which he 
now holds in Harvard College. 

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted. That the inhabitants of the said town of 
West Cambridge, shall be entitled to hold such proportion of all the real and 
personal property now belonging to, and owned in common bj^ them, and 
the inhabitants of the present town of Cambridge, as the property of the 
said inhabitants of West Cambridge now bears to the property of all the 
inhabitants of the late town of Cambridge, according to the latest valuation 
thereof; excepting always, all rights of common landing places, uses, and 
privileges now and heretofore possessed and enjoyed Ijy the inhabitants of 
said Cambridge, which shall hereafter belong and appertain to that to\\'n only 
in which the same may fall. 

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the said town of 
West Cambridge, shall be holden to pay all arrears of taxes, due from them, 
together with their proportion (to be ascertained as aforesaid) of all the debts 
and claims now due and owing, from the said town of Cambridge, or which 
may hereafter be found due and owing, by reason of any contract, engage- 
ment, judgment of court, or other matter or thing, heretofore entered into, 
or now existing. 

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That the said town of West Cambridge, 
shall be holden to support their proportion of the present poor of the town 
of Cambridge, which proportion shall be ascertained by the present valuation 
of the town; and all persons who may hereafter become chargeable, as paupers, 
to the towns of Cambridge and West Cambridge, shall be considered as belong- 
ing to that town, on the territory of which they had their settlement, at the 
time of passing this act, and shall, in future, be chargeable to that town only. 

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That the said town of West Cambridge 
shall be held to keep up and support their proportion of the old bridge, over 
Charles River, between the first and third parishes of Cambridge, which 
proportion shall be ascertained from time to time, by the state valuation. 

Sec. 6. Be it further enacted. That the said town of West Cambridge, 
shall be holden to pay their proportion of all state and county taxes, assessed 
on the inhabitants of the said town of Cambridge, until the General Court 
shall lay a tax on the said town of West Cambridge. 

Sec. 7. Be it further enacted. That this Act will not have any force or 
effect, until the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and seven. 

Sec. 8. Be it further enacted, That any justice of the peace for the county 
of Middlesex, upon application therefor, is hereby authorized to issue his 
warrant, directed to some freeholder of the said town of West Cambridge, 
requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants thereof to meet at such time 
and place as shall be appointed in said warrant, for the choice of such officers, 
as the towns are by law required to choose, at their annual town meetings. 



62 Town of Arlington 

The first "town meeting" under the foregoing act was held 
June 11th, 1S07, and was convened "in the new meetinghouse in 
said town," according to the wording of the warrant. At this 
meeting Samuel Locke presided as moderator and town officers 
were elected as follows: 

Town Clerk. — Thomas Russell, Jr. 

Selectmen. — Jonathan Whittemore, Daniel Adams, John Tufts, 
Samuel Locke, William Whittemore, Jr. 

Overseers of Poor. — Samuel Butterfield, George Prentiss, Noah 
Russell. 

Treasurer. — John Adams. 

Constables. — George Prentiss, Charles Cutter, 

Surveyors of Highways. — Benjamin Locke, Amos Frost, Noah 
Russell. 

Surveyors of Lumber. — Caleb Coal, Jonathan Butterfield. 

Fence Viewers. — James Hill, John Tufts. 

Firewards. — William Whittemore, Jr., Nathaniel Hill, George 
Prentiss, Jr. 

Hogreeves. — Samuel Butterfield, Jr., Ephraim Cooke, 3d, 
James Cutter, John Frost, Jr., Benjamin Locke. 

Tythingman. — William Hill, 3d. 

Poundkeeper. — Josiah Whittemore. 

Field Drivers. — Eben Swan, William Cutter, Jr., Nehemiah 
Cutter, Jonathan Frost, Adam Cutter, Amos Russell. 

Clerk of Market. — John Tufts. 

The selectmen were named to act as School Committee for one 
year, and Samuel Butterfield, George Prentiss, Col. J. Wellington, 
Samuel Locke, Ebenezer Hill a "committee for the purpose of 
adjusting any matters or things in which the said town of West 
Cambridge may be interested or liable in common with the town 
of Cambridge." 

The meeting also voted to build a "town pound." This was an 
important town equipment in those early days — for that matter, 
for fifty years following. The keeping of cattle was universal; 
proper care that they did not Avander into places where much 
damage could be wrought by these cattle was by no means 
universal. "Field drivers" to pick up such stray cattle and a 



Past and Present 63 



place where the same could be safely kept until reclaimed by the 
owner, were essentials. The same applies to the office of "Hog- 
reeve," their duties pertaining to swine. This first "pound" was 
built on land leased from Gershom Swan and stood on the site of 
the Jarvis home on Pleasant street. John Jarvis bought the lot 
in 1831 and erected the dwelling now standing. The pound was 
removed to the "Town Training Field," the plot of ground through 
which Lin wood street passes. This pound was about twenty feet 
square by six feet in height, made of heavy plank and surmounted 
by a broad timber on which boys of that day loved to "roost." 

Possibly this word "training field" needs a word of explanation 
to the majority of readers. One of the first acts of the Provincial 
Congress was the enrollment of all able-bodied citizens between 
the ages of eighteen and forty-five years into militia, but with 
regular army formation, the unit being the "trainband" or 
company as it is now called. The Congress of the United States 
continued the plan then in use in all the thirteen states. By it 
each town was obliged to have its "trainband," and it was equally 
obligatory that a field on which the evolutions of the company 
could be executed be provided; also, that a suitable powder house 
be supplied. This was named the "training field." The powder 
house (for storing powder and balls) was of brick and stood on the 
shore of Spy Pond at the foot of Spring Valley. This building was 
undermined and destroyed in the flood of surface water that 
plowed through the valley in 1836 and which also unearthed the 
remains of the horses captured with Lord Percy's supply train 
on the 19th of April, 1775. 

The removal of the "pound'' to the training field in 1831 was no 
interference with the trainband of that date, as for several years 
previous the green in front of First Parish church had become the 
usual place of "election day" meetings to prepare for the annual 
march around Spy Pond by way of Pleasant street, "Weir lane," 
or Lake street, and Massachusetts avenue. It was also more 
convenient to the refreshments required by the militia. 

When the "training field" was sold the "pound" was torn 
down and a new one of stone built at the town gravel pit, located 
on the corner of Mystic and Summer streets, not far from the 



64 Town of Arlington 

residence of Mr. George P. Winn. Being little used it was demol- 
ished a few years later and the stone used for other purposes. 

The other important event of this first year of town life was 
the dividing the town into four school districts named South, 
West, Middle, Eastern, and numbering them in the order named. 
No. 1 had thirty-nine families; No. 2 comprised forty-two families; 
the total in No. 3 was forty-two; No. 4 consisted of forty-one, 
certainly a fair division so far as regards numbers, and no family 
was a mile from a schoolhouse. Four and a half months, how- 
ever, was the school year assigned to each district. 

The 4th of July, 1808, "was celebrated in great style," says the 
late J. B. Russell, in his reminiscences, "with a procession, 
military escort and an oration in Mr. Fiske's church, closing with 
a dinner in an orchard in the rear of Tufts' Tavern." The orator 
was William Nichols, Jr., of Westford, the then master of the 
*' Center" school. This school building stood on the common 
west of the meetinghouse, and abutted on the brick wall of the 
long range of tombs in the old cemetery. Three years later the 
school building was removed to give room for additional tombs. 
The Boston Independent Chronicle for July 7, 1808, devotes con- 
siderable space to this celebration, which shows it to have been of 
more than local importance. The article referred to says: 

The day was ushered in by the ringing of the bell and discharge 
of seventeen guns at sunrise. At eleven o'clock the procession was 
formed at Mr. John Tufts, consisting of between two and three 
hundred citizens from the town and adjoining towns. From 
thence proceeded, under the escort of Captain Harrington's 
company of artillery, attended by a band of music from Waltham, 
to the new meetinghouse; where after the throne of Grace being 
addressed by the Rev. Mr. Fiske, was pronounced an elegant and 
appropriate discourse by Mr. William Nichols of Westford. After 
this performance, the procession returned to Mr. Tufts', where 
they partook of an excellent repast. When the cloth was removed , 
regular toasts, eighteen in number [the Chronicle prints them in 
full] were drunk and responded to, accompanied by the discharge 
of cannon, the sound of music and expressions of joy and appro- 
bation. The most perfect peace, harmony, and good order pre- 
vailed through the day — those peculiar characteristics of genuine 
republicanism. 



Past and Present 65 



This report can properly be supplemented with a paragraph 
from the pen of Mr. Russell, previously alluded to: 

In the exciting times of the Embargo, the outrage on the 
Chesapeake, etc., the martial spirit was strongly developed. A 
military company of boys, from twelve to seventeen, was formed, 
with Josiah Whittemore as captain, E. R. Thompson, lieutenant, 
and Webster Barber, ensign. It was quite a respectable organi- 
zation and formed the tail end of the procession at the celebration, 
July 4, 1808. This company had the vise of an old iron cannon, 
handsomely mounted, that had been in the town from time 
immemorial, stored in different places, and seemed to belong to 
no one in particular and was used in firing salutes. 

This elaborate celebration had its inception in the natural 
desire to celebrate the birth of the town as an independent muni- 
cipality, and it was generally so regarded. 

Judge James P. Parmenter, in his sketch of Arlington prepared 
for the " History of ^liddlesex County," says that at the time of 
incorjjoration this town had a population of about nine hundred 
people and the number of families named in the aggregate of the 
school districts (one hundred and sixty-four) multiplied by the 
average persons in a family in those daj's gives practically this 
figure as the population. 

On April 23, 1809, Re^'. Thaddeus Fiske, pastor of the First 
Parish church, preached a sermon commemorative of the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of his settlement over this church, in which he 
spoke of local affairs in a way to preserve to this generation a 
strong glimpse at least of the condition of affairs one hundred 
years ago. He said: 

Many changes and events have taken place in this church and 
congregation, and many alterations and improvements have been 
made in this town within the twenty-five years. . . . Almost an 
entire change has appeared on the face of society here. . . . 
There were then twenty-eight persons from about seventy and 
upwards; there are now but four men who have arrived at seventy 
years. The members of this church are also mostly changed. . . . 
Of those who have died, two lived to the great age of one hundred 
and one years (Anna Winship and Thomas Williams) ; four between 
ninety and one hundred; nineteen between eighty and ninety; 



66 Towrn of Arlington 

twenty-six between seventy and eighty; hence fifty-one reached 
or survived seventy years. From this statement it appears that 
a proportion of about one in six Hved to or beyond the common 
term of hfe. . . . 

Compare your situation now with what it was twenty-one 
years ago. Then you had troublous times; you had been without 
a minister for five years; there were divisions among you, and 
discord, and ahenation of affection. A new society under a new 
denomination had been set up; not to introduce a new rehgion, 
nor to preach an}^ other gospel than what was already preached, 
but merely to change one denomination of Christians to another, 
unhappily dividing a society already small and when united not 
more than competent to a decent support of a minister with ease 
to yourselves — a division occasioned by a distinction in the form 
of godliness, rather than its power. . . . The walls of partition 
were set up. The number of regular religious professors 
diminished. For more than five years no additions were made to 
the church. . . . Debts were accumulating and nothing seemed 
to prosper in the work of your hand. You were reduced %o a 
condition exceedingly unfavorable both to your religious and 
temporal welfare. 

Your situation now is just the reverse of all this. . . . You are 
free from strife and contention about the different modes and 
persuasions of religion for the support of the gospel. . . . Instead 
of being embarrassed in your circumstances, or burdened with 
debts, you have become independent and easy in your worldly 
and temporal affairs and have made progress in wealth. A 
small and inconvenient house of Avorship is now exchanged for 
this spacious, elegant and commodious temple. . . . 

Many dwelling houses have been built and many others repaired 
and improved. Many families have been added to you from 
abroad and the growth of population among yourselves has 
greatly increased. A flourishing manufactory (the Whittemore 
Card Factory) has been introduced and established, which has 
brought wealth into the place, afforded employment and means 
of subsistence to many of you, augmented the property of the 
town and enhanced the value of real estate of many descriptions. 
A society for social inteiTourse, friendship, and mutual improve- 
ment is formed in the midst of us as a bond of union; the estab- 
lishment of a social library affords advantages not heretofore 
enjoyed. Stores have been added and by the increased culti- 
vation of the soil your farms have become better and more pro- 
ductive; and many other improvements have been made tending 
to convenience and utility, to the promotion of knowledge and 



Past and Present 67 

the increase of wealth. . . . "Hitherto the Lord hath helped 
us." ... In every important transaction a spirit of candor, 
mutual forbearance and accommodation has been diffused among 
you; and a disposition to maintain peace and harmony so essential 
to the interests of true religion and the welfare of society. . . . 
This sacred temple, I trust, will long remain a monument to your 
piety and liberality. Few villages can be named that have risen 
faster, or bid fairer to grow and flourish. 

Another glimpse at the town's general prosperity is afforded 
by a paragraph in one of ^Ir. Russell's reminiscences already 
alluded to. He says: 

There were seven groceries in the town at this period, kept 
by William Locke, Tufts & Adams, Thomas Russell, Walter 
Russell, William S. Brooks, Miles Gardner, besides the "Fac- 
tory Store" kept by William Whittemore & Co., though more 
business was done by Colonel Russell than all the others com- 
bined, his store having been established before the Revolution 
and having a large country trade in Lexington, Bedford, Car- 
lisle, Billerica, etc. 

Four years later this general and almost universal prosperity 
was changed to a marked and really disastrous degree by the 
removal to New York of the Whittemore & Co. lousiness, and 
these local misfortunes culminated in what is now spoken of as 
the War of 1812. People moved away, business languished, and 
the town fell back to a state of affairs level with the times pre- 
ceding ^Ir. Whittemore's enterprise, namely, raising produce for 
home consumption and finding a scant market for the surplus 
in Boston, Charlestown, and Cambridge. 

This state of affairs continued until 1827, when Gershom and 
Henry Whittemore, sons of the inventor Amos, resumed the busi- 
ness of card making in Arlington, having purchased machines 
from their uncle, Samuel, of New York. Though the former 
success did not follow the reestablishment of the business here, 
it brought new life to a certain degree, which a few years later 
was greatly augmented. Li 1832 James Schouler, "calico printer 
of Lynn," bought the Stearns property on ^lill Brook and trans- 
ferred his business to this town, and the same year, namely, 



68 Town of Arlington 

1832, William Welch and Charles Griffiths, saw makers of Bos- 
ton, and Charles Reeves of this town, file cutter, secured from 
Cyrus Cutter a ninet3'-nine year lease of the mill privilege on 
Grove street and there erected works which for many years 
gave highly remunerative employment to a large number of men. 
As both of these business ventures are treated at length in 
the department devoted to manufacturing enterprises, this brief 
mention is sufficient. 

Arlington was one of the consideraljle number of towns that 
early in the nineteenth century had great expectations of the 
advantages to accrue from the construction of turnpikes to par- 
allel country roads. Perhaps this is not to be wondered at Avhen 
the character of the public highways is considered and the 
promises of the chartered turnpike promoters understood. Their 
plan was to build a hard roadbed on lines as nearly level as 
circumstances Avould allow, two considerations of the deepest 
concern to agriculturists and manufacturers who must rely on 
country roads, horrible through all the spring months, because 
mainly paths over virgin soil. 

Soon after Arlington was incorporated in 1807, Col. Wm. 
Whittemore at the center and "Jed" Wellington in the south 
part of the town now known as Belmont, became financially 
interested in the "turnpike boom" as it would now be termed. 
Colonel Whittemore was interested in the "Middlesex Turnpike 
Co." (chartered in 1805 and located in 1806) whose charter was 
for a "straight line from Lowell to Charlestown." This charter 
was repealed in 1841. Mr. Wellington's enterprise was the 
Concord Turnpike. 

The section in the limits of Arlington followed what is 
now Westminster avenue and Lowell street to the foot of the 
rocks, then continued along the north line of Mill Brook to a 
junction with Broadway and by a nearly straight line to 
Charlestown. 

This course would curtail if not destroy the mill privileges on 
Mill Brook, and in 1809 Stephen Cutter, John Tufts, Ephraim 
Cooke, James Cutler, Aaron Cutter, Nathaniel Hill, and heirs of 
Israel Blackington, sought an injunction in court. The town 



Past and Present 69 



joined with these citizens, and at a town meeting held Feb. 7, 
1810, it was voted: 

That the rei^resentative of the town [Samuel Butterfield 
held the office from 1807 to 1811] be instructed to use all his 
endeavors that the Middlesex Turnpike be located at the foot of 
the rocks (so called) in West Cambridge and at no* other place; 
that Colonel Wellington, George Prentiss, Benjamin Locke be a 
committee in addition to said representative and for the same 
purpose. 

This marked a beginning of a compromise which made the 
ending of Middlesex Turnpike at the "foot of the rocks." The 
town bought the holdings of the Turnpike Co. for $516.49, and 
to avoid the hill, built a new piece of road from what is now the 
junction of Paul Revere road with the avenue, to Lowell street, 
at a cost of $1089.15, paid to Samuel Hall for building the same. 
This was in addition to the expense of building retaining walls. 
The matter was not disposed of finally until June 25, 1812, 
when it was "Voted that the town will incur no more expense 
on account of the ^Middlesex Turnpike." 

The Concord Turnpike encountered no similar opposition and 
was built on lines of what is still called " the turnpike " through 
to Lexington and Concord; but at Cambridge a wide detour was 
caused by that town building a fence around the common to 
shut out roads that had formerly crossed it at different angles. 

^lany people in Arlington took stock in both companies, but 
neither was a success financially. 

^larch 11, 1811. Selectmen directed to report on probable 
expense of erecting a powder magazine, and the annual ex- 
pense of depositing military stores at the magazine in Charles- 
town kept by Peter Tufts, Jr. 

Sept. 23, 1811. Voted that the selectmen be directed to 
build a powder house within the limits of the town in such place 
as they shall deem proper. It was located on the shore of Spy 
Pond, at foot of Spring Valley. 

Sept. 12, 1814. Voted that a committee be appointed to pro- 
vide for the welfare and safety of this town and its inhabi- 
tants during the present war with Great Britain, to consist of 



70 



Town of Arlington 



William Whittemore, Jr., John Adams, Amos Whittemore, Jedu- 
than Wellington, Noah Russell, Benjamin Locke, George Pren- 
tiss, Samuel Butterfield. 

The town voted to meet the expense of military stores, "im- 
plements and camp utensils," such as this committee deemed 
necessary. It was also voted that volunteers be paid seven 
dollars per month in addition to the pay received from the 
government. Dec. 15, 1814, this last vote was rescinded. 

In 1816 the town made provision for the care of its poor by 
erecting a building near where Monument place is located, and 
the same year made provision for purchase of implements then 
common for fighting fires. Four years later a fire engine was 
purchased. 

Jan. 6, 1817. Voted that the selectmen and overseers of the 
poor be requested to see to it that the laws against gambling be 
strictly enforced and that they make a list of the names of all 
such persons as are in the habit of excessive drinking or of wast- 
ing their time and prosperity thereby; and that such list be put 
in the hands of licensed persons in this town, prohibiting them 
selling spirituous liquors to any person whose name is on said list. 

The first mention of heating the parish church appears in the 




ARLINGTON CENTER IN 1817 



records of 1820, when the parish "Voted: that a stove and fun- 
nel be erected in the meetinghouse for the comfort and con- 



Past and Present 71 



venience of all the inhabitants of the parish at proper seasons 
of the year." The town meetings were all held in the church, 
and it is not unlikely citizens brought foot stoves as did some of 
the pew holders to the service on Sunday prior to this date. 

Aug. 9, 1821. Voted that the selectmen be authorized to dis- 
pose of all perishable military stores and such as are useless. 

^'oted that all moneys that have been or may be received as 
pensions or from other sources on account of persons who have 
been or may be wholly or partially supported by the town shall 
be disposed of and appropriated for the benefit of said town. 

In 1821 the first board of fish preservers was chosen. Early 
in the history of this town great quantities of shad and alewives 
were captured in ^lystic and ]\Ienotomy rivers (Alewife Brook) 
by means of weirs, the fish being used, one or two in each hill of 
corn, as fertilizers. This wholesale destruction and often waste 
led to restrictions being placed by action of the General Court 
on the capture of the fish by these means, and it was in com- 
pliance with tlie provisions of that act that these "fish preser- 
vers" were appointed. 

The notable event of 1824 .seems to have been the visit of 
General Lafayette, who passed through the town on his way to 
Lexington where he was received with marked honors, 
interestingly reported by Hon. Charles Hudson in his " History of 
Lexington." 

^lay 3, 1830. A committee chosen for the purpose reported 
to the town as follows: 

We have purchased of the Congregational parish in said West 
Cambridge, the hearse house standing on the burying ground 
in said town, together with the hearse and other implements 
necessary for the interment of the dead, for the sum of ninety 
dollars, and have taken a bill of sale and transfer of said prop- 
erty from a committee of said Congregational parish, specially 
raised for that purpose, which is hereunto annexed. 

Charles Wellington, 
Joshua Avery, 
Abner Peirce. 

The transfer is signed by James Russell, Amos Locke, Samuel 
Butterfield, representing the Parish. 



72 Town of Arlington 

The hearse house was removed to ]Mount Pleasant Cemetery, 
May 30, 1867, and was located there until the town went out of 
the undertaking business, when the late J. Henry Hartwell pur- 
chased a new hearse and an up-to-date undertaker's outfit. The 
old hearse was sold, and since then the building in which it was 
stored has been used as a tool house for the cemetery employees. 

Nov. 6, 1826. Town voted to join with Cambridge in peti- 
tioning the Legislature for authority to build the proposed new 
bridge between Cambridge and Boston and authorized the select- 
men to present a memorial in favor of said petition. Also 

Resolved that the representative from this town be requested 
to use his influence to further the wishes of the petitioners. 

jMay 11, 1831. Voted that a committee of three persons be 
chosen by nomination to procure a pall for the use of the town, 
and the selectmen were chosen for that purpose. 

Dec. 29, 1831. Voted to order the removal of horse sheds 
erected on this land near First Parish church but within the 
bounds of the old burying ground, and the party building them 
be ordered to remove the same. 

The various events of special interest, historically, of which 
there is a record, relating to schools, fire department, public 
library, business interests, etc., between the years 1824 and 1837, 
are all treated at length in special articles, and this record of the 
first three decades of town life will close with noting the erec- 
tion of a monument in the old cemetery to the memory of Wil- 
liam and Mary Cutter, as a mark of appreciation of their gift 
that created the "Cutter School Fund," which is still contribut- 
ing towards the education of Arlington youth. 



CHAPTER II 



1837-1847 



Population in 1840, 1,363. 

Business enterprises enumei-ated. — Mount Pleasant Cemetery established and 
dedicated. — Section of Charlestown annexed to Arlington. — Becomes 
a suburb of Boston. — Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad. — 
Postal facilities, past and present. — Naming streets. — River street 
bridge over Mystic River. — New dwellings contrasted with old. — 
Eliminating bogs and creating park lands. 

ri^HE curfew is an old institution. Arlington made the first 
-L appropriation for this purpose ^larch 6, 1837. In 1841 
the ringing of the curfew bell was, like the collection of taxes, 
put up at auction and sold to the lowest bidder. 

Through all the intervening years the town continued the 
ringing of the nine o'clock bell, and also the meridian signal by 
the same means. The fire gong has replaced the noon signal, 
and though the nine o'clock bell was rung through 1906, it was 
at the expense of private subscription. The last town meeting 
of 1906 again voting against making an appropriation for the 
purpose and the private funds being exhausted, the ringing 
had been some time discontinued prior to the ushering in of 
the centennial year. 

At this time (namely 1837) two mills here were employed in 
pulverizing drugs, medicines, and dye stufTs; there was a dyeing 
and calico printing establishment, one saw factory, a wool card 
factory, a turning and sawing mill, a chair and cabinet factory, 
and boot and shoe making to the amount of 500 pairs of boots 
and 31,000 pairs of shoes. 

In 1841 people residing in the westerly part of Charlestown 
generally denominated "The Neck," "becoming dissatisfied with 
the burdens of taxation, unrelieved by corresponding benefits," 
held a meeting in the Prospect Hill schoolhouse, Nov. 22, 1841. 

73 



74 Town of Arlington 

This was the first of several steps leading up to the incorporation 
of Somerville, IMarch 3, 1842. 

This item is of interest and significance to Arlington, as one 
outcome of the discussion and subsequent Act of the Legislature 
incorporating the town of Somerville, brought about the trans- 
fer from Charlestown to Arlington of a section of territory which, 
shaped something like a wedge, extended from Ale wife Brook 
on the east, Mystic River on the northeast, parallel with what 
is now Warren street on the southwest, to the Wol^urn line, the 
then northern boundary of Charlestown. One of the stone 
bounds is still to be seen at the southerly boundary of Mount 
Pleasant Cemetery; another is on the Crosby farm. 

This block of land was tenanted by people preferring to be 
joined with a community with whom naturally they had the 
closest business and church relations, so '' Samuel Gardner and 
twenty-eight other property holders northerly from Alewife 
Brook," petitioned the town of Arlington to have this strip of 
territory annexed to that town. The petition was acted on 
favorably by the town, the following being the formal vote of 
the town at a meeting held Monday, Dec. 20, 1841: 

Voted, That the inhabitants of the town of West Cam- 
bridge do now give their full and free consent and approbation 
of all that part of the territory of the town of Charlestown which 
is northwest of the line which divides the farm of Charles Tufts 
from the farms of Jonathan Teel and of the late Lemuel Por- 
ter, being on the easterly side of the Charlestown road and 
northwest of the line which divides the farm of Samuel G. Thomp- 
son from the farm of George Hayes, being on the southerly line 
of the said Charlestown road, together with the polls and estates 
of the inhabitants residing on said territory, upon condition: 

That the inhabitants of said territory shall pay or secure to 
be paid into the treasury of the said town of West Cambridge, 
on or before the first day of January, a.d., 1843, a sum of 
money to be added to the William Cutter school fund, and to 
be kept forever as a part of said school fund, which from a fair 
valuation of the said territory and the polls and estates of the 
inhabitants residing therein shall bear the same proportion to 
the sum of five thousand dollars as the present town of West 
Cambridge bears to that sum by a like valuation, which shall 



Past and Present 75 



be taken by the assessors which shall be chosen by the town 
next after the passing of the act of annexation. 

And that by a compliance by bond or otherwise with the 
foregoing condition the inhabitants residing on said territory, 
and all others which may hereafter reside thereon, shall be ad- 
mitted (if the act for that purpose is obtained at the next Gen- 
eral Court) to all the rights and privileges and subject to all 
same liabilities of the present inhabitants of the said town of 
West Cambridge. 

Provided, also, that if in the act which shall separate them 
from the said town of Charlestown and annex them to the said 
town of West Cambridge, their just proportion of the surplus 
revenue deposited with the said town of Charlestown can be 
obtained, the same shall be paid into the treasury of the town 
of West Cambridge and be held subject to the control of the 
said town of West Cambridge. 

James Russell, Mansur W. .Marsh, Walter Fletcher were cho- 
sen a committee to appear l;)efore the Legislature, with full power 
to safeguard the town's interests. 

The town record ends abruptly at this point, showing leaves 
have been lost prior to a comparatively recent rebinding of 
the old record book, but as the act of the Legislature was 
adopted February 25, 1842, it is presumable the terms set by 
this town were cordially adopted by those interested. 

This annexation gave Arlington the largest territory it ever 
had, for in 1850 it surrendered a portion of this strip to Win- 
chester, and March 18, 1859, it lost all the southern section of 
the town by the incorporation of Belmont as a separate township. 

Independence Day, July 4, 1842, was marked in Arlington 
by a general celebration, consisting of a procession headed by 
the Woburn Band, and formal exercises in First Parish church. 
The procession formed in front of the Universalist church and 
ended its short route at the place where exercises were to be 
held. Rev. David Damon read the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and also contributed a patriotic poem. The oration was 
by Rev. J. C. Waldo, the first pastor of the Universalist church. 
The celebration closed with a picnic banquet in a grove. 

In 1843 the town bought the major portion of the land now 
known as Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and it was laid out by a 



76 Town of Arlington 

committee consisting of Thomas Thorpe, Daniel Cady, Josiah H. 
Russell, Isaiah Jenkins, Edward Smith, Moses Procter, and 
about the same time set out trees in the old burying ground 
and built the substantial stone wall on the street side of both 
lots. Rev. David Damon, then pastor of First Parish church, 
preached the sermon when this new cemetery was dedicated, and 
a few days afterwards his body was interred there, his being 
the first to find a resting place in the new ground. 

The movement of our narrative in matter (jf time brings us 
to steps taken in the direction of solving the transportation 
problem confronting the people here as well as on the south 
and southwest of the metropolis. 

Solving Transportation Problem. 

The Arlington of today, in the broadest possible contrast with 
the time when the town was incorporated, is primarily the place 
of residence of people having business in the nearby metropolis. 
It owes its position as one of the wealthier smaller towns of the 
state to the high character of the homes they occupy rather than 
to local business interests, as is the case with many places of its 
size. All the larger business enterprises making this a prosper- 
ous community in 1807 (garden farming as we know it was not 
then a business interest) have been discontinued; others have 
not been inaugurated. The policy which shut out the establish- 
ing here of what has grown to be the great "Waltham Watch 
Factory," has been continued, and though the future cannot 
be forecasted, this "tradition" is not likely to be reversed for 
many years to come. It has been transformed into a residen- 
tial section and is likely to remain such. 

The first Boston merchant to have a permanent residence 
here (according to Cutter's " History of Arlington ") was Mr. 
Ammi Cutter, a branch of the Cutter family identified with the 
town from earliest days. His house is occupied by his direct 
descendants and stands opposite the southern end of the old 
burying ground on Pleasant street. He was an oil merchant, 
and his journeys back and forth were in his own conveyance, 
the old-fashioned chaise. This was in 1836. 



Past and Present 



77 



But Mr. Cutter was not tlie only resident of Arlington hav- 
ing large business interests in Boston at this time, and for these 
as well as for himself public conveyances were of small value, 
as ]Mr. Wellington's statement in his reminiscences shows. 

He says at first there was the stage from Boston, Lowell, and 
points in New Hampshire, which carried the mail as well as 




THE OLD-TIME STAGE COACH 



passengers, that passed through Arlington three times a week 
and charged seventy-five cents as the fare each way. It came late 
in the afternoon on its way to Boston and returned the next day 
in the early forenoon. 

Later there was a coach added on this route from Boston 
to Concord known as "Deacon Brown's stage," which furnished 
a daily trip, and the time table was more convenient than be- 
fore. 

A person desiring to go to Boston by this route left his name 
at the Whittemore Tavern on the corner of Medford street and 
Massachusetts avenue, now known as "Arlington House," and 
on arrival the stage drove to the residence of the person named 



78 Town of Arlington 

and picked up liis passenger. This competition cut the fare 
each way to Boston to fifty cents. 

Before many years, namely about 1838, both these hues had 
a formidable rival in a line of coaches (the name of omnibus 
was given to the new vehicle) that operated between Boston 
and this town, making two trips a day, and cutting the fare 
to twent3'-five cents. This was a great financial advantage also, 
as the toll on the Charles river bridges for carriages was twelve 
cents. Market men could go over for a toll of six cents. This 
was a strictly local enterprise, Cummings Lovejoy, a citizen of 
Arlington, being the proprietor, and his outfit was housed in a 
large stable on the Philip Whittemore farm near the line of what 
is now Avon place. 

It was stated in the oijening sentence of a preceding para- 
graph that more people than Mr. Cutter had business interests 
in Boston. The selling office of Welch & Griffiths was in Bos- 
ton, the Schouler Print Works had dealings mainly with mer- 
chants of that city, other firms located on the busy mill stream 
had occasion to visit Boston frequently; but more than all 
else this section had proved attractive to business men of the 
metropolis who had come here to reside, notably Mr. Nathan 
Robbins, who bought the Whittemore mansion in 1842. 

In 1844 these combined interests unified at a public meet- 
ing held to consider the project, made a concerted movement 
to build a steam railroad from Arlington to connect with the 
Fitchburg railroad at North Cambridge, and a survey of what 
seemed a feasible route was made. 

This action on the part of Arlington citizens led some of the 
more enterprising citizens of Lexington to consider seriousl}' 
the matter of better facilities for reaching Boston, and out of 
this came a combination of Arlington and Lexington business 
men which gave to this section steam railroad accommodation 
in 1846. 

Mr. George Y. Wellington, the venerable president of Arling- 
ton Historical Society, was the engineer employed to locate the 
roadbed and set the levels for this road. He wrote a sketch 
of this enterprise on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of 



Past and Present 79 



opening the road, from which the following paragraphs are ex- 
tracted : 

In October, 1844, several of the leading citizens of the town 
suggested that a short branch railroad might be built, at small 
expense, which would be a real benefit to the town. A meet- 
ing of the citizens was called, and a committee chosen to have 
the proper surveys made and a petition sent to the Legislature 
for a charter for the West Cambridge Branch Railroad. A 
survey was made upon the line of the present road from where 
the Boston & Elaine connects now with the Fitchburg Railroad 
to the low^ land south of Massachusetts avenue, in rear of the 
house of F. E. Fowle. This made only about 1 1-4 miles to 
build, at moderate cost, and if built the Fitchburg Railroad 
Company offered to operate the same, and we of West Cam- 
bridge dreamed of having a little railroad of our own, paid for 
out of our own pockets, and felt quite independent. 

At this point citizens of Lexington, led by jMr. Benjamin 
Muzzey, came forward with a proposition on a much broader 
scale, which would give Arlington a road in case the project of 
the " Lexington Branch "was successful. Our citizens would not 
give way, but the Legislature of 1844-5 granted a charter for 
the Lexington & West Cambridge Branch Railroad, giving the 
petitioners for the West Cambridge Branch Railroad leave to 
withdraw. Then it w&q that Mr. Muzzey put forth his energy 
in order to secure a sufficient- number of stock subscribers to 
organize the company. This he accomplished, a few shares 
being subscribed for by Dr. Wellington, John Schouler, Thomas 
Russell, Henry Whittemore, and some of the citizens of West 
Cambridge, and the Lexington & West Cambridge Branch Rail- 
road became a corporation. Benjamin ^luzzey was elected 
president; Larkin Turner, treasurer. 

The road was tniilt, equipped in a modest wa}', and August 
24, 1846, the first train was run over the road. It chanced to 
be the first train to enter the new Fitchburg depot on Causeway 
street, Boston, now in use by the Boston & Maine Railroad for 
other purposes. The conductor was ^Ir. Amos Locke of 
Lexington, deceased a few years ago. 

Mr. Wellington's recollections may be properly supplemented 
with facts relating to the transfer of this line to the Boston & 
Lowell Railroafl (now a part of the great Boston & !\Iaine 8ys- 



80 Town of Arlington 

tem) by purchase of the stock and acquiring the franchise of 
this Lexington & West Cambridge Branch. 

The "Branch" was not a signal success financially. Start- 
ing at Lexington and ending at the "Brick Yards" station of 
the Fitchburg Railroad, possessing no right to run its engine and 
cars beyond this point, it was at the mercy of the main lines, 
all trains from Lexington and Arlington having to await there 
the arrival of a train on the Fitchburg road to which the 
passengers cars could 1)6 attached, and drawn to the terminal at 
Boston. Such a line could not attract freight, so here was 
another serious handicap. 

The death of Benjamin ^luzzey, the moving spirit in this 
enterprise, August 21, 1848, was another severe blow. No one 
had the disposition, provided they possessed the ability, to fos- 
ter the enterprise as he had. His successor in the office of presi- 
dent was Hon. Charles Hudson of Lexington. 

To supplement jNlr. Wellington's story with an outline of 
steps by which this short branch passed to the control of the 
present management and became part of a great system, re- 
quires but a few words. 

Within a short time the Fitchburg Railroad was solicited to 
purchase the stock and take control of the road. Evidently 
this corporation considered it a nearly ripe plum that by force 
of financial gravity would soon fall into their basket without 
the effort of picking, and declined to purchase or operate it. 

In the interval the Boston & Lowell Railroad was reaching 
after suburban travel, and discovering in this branch a jiossible 
profitable feeder, secured the needful legislation, and by build- 
ing a short strip of road from Somerville Junction to Lake street 
in Arlington, secured what was named the ^liddlesex Central 
Branch, which it extended to Concord. 

How the single track became douljle and a connection with 
the main line from Lexington to No. Billerica over the aban- 
doned road of the Bedford & Billerica Railroad was made are 
matters of so recent date that recounting is needless. 

Any reader who will compare the date of building the State 
Reformatorv at Concord with the time when Boston & Lowell 



Past and Present 81 



Railroad secured control of this In-anch will perhaps discover 
on one hand a motive for the purchase beyond what has been 
named, and also why the Fitchburg Railroad repented of its 
action when too late to prevent a rival line for freight to Con- 
cord. 

Intimately associated in the earlier days as it is now with 
increased facilities for travel, was the post office business of the 
coimtry, and probably in no department is the broadening of 
the scope, increasing facilities, and reducing cost so marked as 
with this department of the government business. In this 
development the war of the rebellion was an important factor, 
demanding as it did special means for reaching men in the field 
and exigencies created l\v the unusual situation. 

Arlington has shared in all the improved facilities of these 
later years, and young people possibly never stop to consider 
that these conveniences are peculiar to their time — that in 
contrast ^\■ith a not very distant i^ast they are really wontlerful. 




Post Office Established. Its Growth. 

For five years after Arlington was incorporated in l.S()7, the 
town had no postal facilities provided by the United States gov- 
ernment. The drivers of the stages passing through the town 
acted voluntarily as letter carriers, but on any other route 
a private messenger must be employed to deliver a letter. The 
prices for delivering letters by stage drivers varied, as it did 
also where the government had an established office, according 
to distance, — fourpence (6^ cents), ninepence (12+ cents), or 
the English shilling (25 cents), being the ordinary tariff. Letters 
mailed to parties living anywhere on the traveled road were 
delivered by the stage driver, but letters directed to those re- 
siding off the main thoroughfare were delivered at Col. Rus- 
sell's grocery, and there exposed to public view until called for. 



82 



Town of Arlington 



In 1809 a commission as postmaster for Arlington was issued 
to Col. Russell, on the application of "Squire" Whittemore who 
apparently had influence with the administration at Washing- 
ton, but Col. Russell refused to accept the appointment which 
promised so slight a return for the responsibility he would have 
to assume, and for three more years Arlington had no post- 
master. 

In 1812 Col. Russell took the initiative and on his recom- 
mendation Capt. William S. Brooks was appointed and accepted 
the commission. ^Ir. John B. Russell, whose reminiscences 
published in the Arlington Advocate furnish considerable data 
used in the preparation of this volume, says in mentioning this 
first postmaster that "Captain Brooks was an ardent Feder- 
alist, but also a public spirited citizen. He was the first man 
to establish a lumber yard in the town, adding this branch of 
business to his dry goods and grocery store." ^Ir. George Y. 
Wellington says his place of business was directly opposite what 
is now Whittemore street, on Massachusetts avenue. 

Captain Brooks held office until 
1818, when Amos Whittemore was 
appointed and transferred the office 
to his house which was next west of 
Captain Brooks. He held the office 
until 1834, when he was succeeded 
by his brother Henry whose house 
was next adjoining. Henry Whitte- 
more 's successor was Isaac Shattuck, 
.Jr., who kept store on the corner of 
Massachussetts avenue and JMedford 
street, and in 1840 he surrendered 
to ^Ir. John Fowle, whose store was 
for many years a local landmark at the junction of Broadway 
and ]\Iassachusetts avenue. This building was removed to make 
a place for the soldier's monument, and is now located on 
Monument place. 

In 1846 Mr. Fowle disposed of his business to two of his 
clerks, Messrs. Edwin R. Prescott and Abel R. Proctor, and the- 




WHITTEMORE HOUSE 
Post Office, 181 8-1840 



Past and Pi^esent 



83 




JOHN FOWLE'S STORE 
Post Office, I 840-1852 



former served as postmaster until 1852. In that year the firm 
of Prescott & Proctor removed to the just completed Town Hall 
building, occupying the entire 
first story and making a dis- 
play of goods that attracted 
customers from all the adjoin- 
ing towns. 

In 1862 Mr. Prescott re- 
signed the post office branch 
of the business to Mr. Proctor, 
w^ho in turn was succeeded by 
the head clerk of the firm, Mr. 
Frederick E. Fowle. in 1868. 

Mr. Fowle held the office until 1895, when the present post- 
master, Alfred D. Hoitt, was commissioned. In 1874, while Mr. 

Fowle was postmaster, 
Arlington was admitted to 
the list of "money order" 
offices. 

The contrast between 
an occasional letter stuck 
on a post in Colonel Rus- 
sell's old grocery to await 
the call of its owner, and 
the three and four de- 
liveries at homes in Arling- 
ton by uniformed letter 
carriers ; the twenty-five 
cents once paid for a 
letter from Concord, N.H., 
to the correspondent in 
Arlington, compared with the two cents which will insure the 
delivery of a letter of equal weight in San Francisco or the 
Hawaiian Islands, is one scale by which the advance in conven- 
iences can be measured and the growth of Arlington be illustrated. 
The broad lines of ^lassachusetts avenue — it was originall}^ 
laid out "six rods wide" — are in a sense characteristic of the 




TOWN HALL 
Post Office, 1852-1895 



84 Town of Arlington 

first settlers and their successors, and few towns can boast of 
better streets. 

The "road from Watertown to Cooke's mill in Menotomy/' 
though not laid out as wide as the main thoroughfare of the 
town, was established at a width rare among surrounding towns, 
and the scenery through which it passed naturally gave it the name 
"Pleasant" it has enjoyed through several generations. These 
natural beauties have been enhanced by those acquiring the 
land and building dwellings along the line of this thorough- 
fare. 

The road to Woburn, also that from Watertown to the mill on 
Mill Brook and from Medford to Arlington, were constructed 
not long after the road we call Massachusetts avenue was cut 
through the wilderness for the benefit of Cambridge people, as 
has been recounted in preceding pages. 

Opening New Territory. 

Up to the year 1846 there seems to have been no real nam- 
ing of streets with the exception of Grove street, built in 1840 
to accommodate the saw works; but in that year, according to 
a table of accepted streets published in "Annual Reports for 
1900," the old but little used way to Charlestown through Somer- 
ville was accepted November 9, 1846, and the same meeting 
rechristened Weir lane Lake street, and formally gave the name 
Bow, Forest, Lowell, Somerset place (now Pelham terrace) to 
the streets we know by these names to-day. These were, with 
the exception of the terrace last named, to a certain degree 
County roads, leading as they do to Belmont, Winchester, and 
Lexington, and it was on lines laid out by the County Commis- 
sioners that they were accepted by the town at this November 
meeting in 1846. Appleton street from its junction with Massa- 
chusetts avenue, and the recently named Paul Revere road (Vine 
street .prior to 1904), are the names now used to designate 
these portions of the old stage route to the point where it con- 
nects with Massachusetts avenue, and belong in the above list, 
being accepted at the same time; but to include them without 



Past and Present 85 



this explanation would be confusing. Since that date streets 
have been built and aecepte<l in the following order: — 

Walnut, :\larch 7, 1870. 

Russell, March 4, 1872. 

:\Iill. June 7, 1872. 

Mount ^'ernon, April 7, 1873. 

Warren, :May 27, 1873. 

Maple, April 20, 1874. 

Park avenue, June 29, 1875. 

Academy (extension), September 20, 1875. 

Franklin and Lewis avenue, ]\Iay 1, 1876. 

Swan, March 14, 1877. 

Jason, March 13, 1884; May 2, 1885. 

Wyman, March 18, 1888; March 13, 1893; July 1, 1895. 

Wellington, November 8, 1897. 

Gray. March 10. 1885; November 8. 1897; Addition, March 

9^ 1891. 
Draper avenue, March 14, 1892. 

Russell terrace, Winslow and Prescott streets, March 14, 1892. 
Bartlett avenue, March 14, 1892. 
Palmer, March 14, 1892. 

Kensington Park and Brantwood road, November 8, 1897. 
Marathon, April 15, 1898. 

To old residents of Arlington this list will be all that is required 
to remind them that on broad lines and with an almost super- 
lative excellence, Arlington has grown during the last third of 
a century since the town was incorporated, but this record 
would not meet its aim without considerable more of detail, and 
]3articulars of this development will here haA^e an appropriate 
place. 

The first new section to be opened on an extensive scale for 
building purposes, was what was "Pierce Hill," now called 
Arlington Heights. In 1872 an association of gentlemen doing 
business in Boston bought the farms located on this property 
owned almost wholly by descendants of Jonas Pierce, eldest 
son of Capt. Solomon Pierce of Revolutionary fame, with whom 
the old veteran had a home imtil his death in October, 1821. 

As the Pierce family has been identified with Arlington for 
more than a hundred years (Jonas Pierce bought the whole of 



86 Town of Arlington 

what is now Arlington Heights, comprising two hundred and 
fifty acres, March 12, 1803), and the name "Appleton" is re- 
tained as the name of one of the principal streets, and appears 
in given names in the Peirce family, it is germane to the sub- 
ject to say that formerly it was the summer home of Rev. 
Nathaniel Appleton of Boston, and in the mansion house this 
gentleman built at the Heights, Captain Solomon died. The house 
in which Peirce lived after removing from Lexington, known 
as the Amos Russell house, is standing at the close of our 
first century. 

The Arlington Heights Land Company bought this wide tract 
embracing farms of Peirce brothers, Marsh, Frost and others in 
Arlington and Belmont, had it surveyed, provided a full set of 
plans, constructed streets and offered the lots for sale. Unfor- 
tunately for those chiefly interested the enterprise was launched 
at the time when the government was on the eve of resuming 
specie payment (suspended with the outbreak of the war of the 
rebellion) and the drop from the inflated values obtaining during 
the war period and afterwards, brought financial loss to most 
of those interested, and their misfortune followed others drawn 
into the enterprise. 

Out of this cloud the section finally emerged and the main 
thoroughfare called Park avenue, accepted by the town and 
laid out by the County Commissioners as a County road to 
Pleasant street in Belmont in 1874, connects with many streets «*• 
on which there are attractive residences of prosperous business 
men of the metropolis. 

As the reader familiar with Arlington thirty years ago scans 
the list naming accepted streets, he will be reminded how the 
Cyrus Wood farm was divided for building lots by the exten- 
sion of Franklin street and the building of Lewis avenue; how 
the skating rink on the Swan estate gave place to the group of 
buildings on Swan place and Swan street; the abandoning by 
Dr. R. L. Hodgdon of his vegetable garden furnished lots for 
the fine residences which make Wellington street such an attrac- 
tive approach to Spy Pond; the transformation wrought on the 
Addison Gage estate. 



Fast and Present 87 



In 1883 Mrs. Teel divided "Jason Russell orchard," as it was 
called, into house lots and gave the same to her children (Rus- 
sell, Albert L., and Josiah Teel, Mrs. Tappan, and Mrs. Dupee). 
Through it, running south from Massachusetts avenue, a wide 
and well graded street was built, which was accepted in 1884. 

Later this street was extended through land of other owners 
to the entrance to ]\Ienotomy Rocks Park, and is there joined 
by the street through Kensington Park, a building section opened 
in 1896 by a company of young men from Cambridge. 

Gray street through the Homer property was naturally a part 
of the general development of this section, which, embracing 
Bartlett avenue as it does, is unquestionably the most popular 
and interesting residential section of the town. 

Wyman street, accepted in 1888, and Palmer street, acceptea 
in 1892, represent a portion of the John P. Wyman farm which 
he made into a residential section. 

All these developments of the town in the matter of residen- 
tial sections have been within the memory of a large majority 
of the citizens and more of detail is not needed to make plain 
the situation as to locality, its growth, or the character of the 
increase. 

Nothing remains of the buildings first erected within this 
territory, but those who well remember some of them say the 
Amos Russell building at Arlington Heights and the old structure 
on the corner of Forest street and ilassachusetts avenue, are 
representatives of those removed long ago. Until within a 
comparatively few years a similar building stood on the John 
P. Wyman farm; another was the Capt. Ed. Russell house on 
Massachusetts avenue. A building with many of these char- 
acteristics, very old, on the corner of ^lassachusetts avenue 
and known as Russell's grocery, the youngest will remember, 
as it was torn clown recently to make room for the extension 
of Associates' Building. 

These houses were low posted, with the back roof reaching 
within six or seven feet from the ground; often with a "hip" 
roof. The rooms were large and the open fireplaces capacious, 
four feet and more in width, the height of the ceiling and the 



88 Town of Arlington 

breadth of the fireplace being conducive to economy in heating. 
The frame was generally of hewn oak timbers and the boarding 
of white pine often more than two feet in width. The frame was 
pinned together at mortised joints and hand-wrought nails held 
the boards. Shingles and clapboards were of split lumber and 
hand shaved. Like their builders they were substantial. Such 
were the dwellings of the first settlers, but their descendants 
wanted something better, and nothing so clearly indicates the 
general prosperity of these sons of the first comers as the build- 
ings erected a few years prior to the incorporation of Arlington, 
and in the period shortly after. They were in the main pleasing 
in architectural design, and those still standing are not unfit 
companions of the more modern buildings by which several are 
surrounded. 

A description of some of these buildings would not be inap- 
propriate in this connection, but as ^Irs. Whittemore, in a special 
section, has named those on Massachusetts avenue and in a sec- 
tion devoted to Pleasant street other buildings are mentioned, 
repetition here would simply occupy space. Suffice it to say, 
these dwellings signify a prosperous and happy people. 

The visitor of today, as well as those of other days, discovers 
that nature has done much to make this territory attractive, 
with the broad outlook from the more elevated sections, the 
ponds nestled in its valleys or the natural beauties of what we 
now call jMenotomy Rocks Park, and these have not and could 
not be changed to materially enhance their attractiveness. But 
there were sections by no manner of means sightly if sometimes 
picturesque, while certainly not conducive to health, and changes 
wrought in the topography of Arlington by the present gener- 
ation will deserve the thanks of all who are to come after us. 

The first of these undesirable and malarial breeding sections 
was eliminated by the building of the Lexington & West Cam- 
bridge Railroad in 1845. The land in the rear of Frederick E. 
Fowle's residence on Massachusetts avenue was a swamp which 
received the surface drainage of a large section of the main 
thoroughfare and through it ran the brook that crosses the 
old cemetery on its way to its outlet in Spy Pond. Across this 



Past mid Present 89 

morass the bed of tlie road was built. It was nearly ready for 
the rails, when one night the crust on w^hich it rested gave way 
and the next morning the filling had sunk nearly out of sight. 
The soft earth was crowded out by this pressure and when the 
damage to the road bed had been repaired by additional filling, 
this swamp hole was a thing of the past. 

Another swampy place in the center of the town has l^een 
disposed of by a slower process. This was located on the south- 
easterly side of Mystic street, and men of sixty years and over 
will remember that in winter it vied with Spy Pond as a place 
for skating. J. Winslow Peirce, who owned the larger section 
of this land, which adjoined his coal yard, was the first to be- 
gin a filling in process, but it remained for a syndicate com- 
posed of Sylvester Stickney, Lucien C. Tyler, .J. W. Whitaker 
and Edwin C. Prescott, who purchased the land adjoining Rus- 
sell terrace, to cut down the knoll and use the gravel in wiping 
out this second piece of undesirable territory and it is today a 
well filled residential section. 

The third enterprise was of larger dimensions and commanded 
expenditure by the town. Arlington was one of the first 
towns of its size to accept the provisions of an Act of the Legis- 
lature authorizing the choice of commissioners to have control of 
park property. To eliminate the swamp between Chestnut street 
and the border of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery was the first under- 
taking of the board of Park Commissioners elected by the town. 
This work has been prosecuted gradually for a series of years, 
both by the town and those owning property contiguous to it, 
and though much remains to be done before the plans of the 
committee are accomplished, the territory is no longer a 
mosquito breeding place, though hardly as attractive as it was 
previously, in the summer time at least, when the rank ver- 
dure hid the dank ooze that w^as a menace to the public 
health. 

But if the future is to be indebted to the past for a cut here 
and a fill there w-hich has materially changed in all cases, and 
wonderfully improved in others, the face of nature within close 
range of the more populous center, in other cases the wisdom of 



90 Town of Arlington 

the Park Commissioners in leaving nature unadorned creates 
an obligation on that future it will joyfully meet. 

The southern boundary of Arlington is Belmont. A wide 
stretch of territory on this border line consists of ravines 
plowed out by the glaciers which scoured and tore at the hills of 
New England, that at this particular point were stayed by the 
resisting force of our granite hills. An illustration of the force 
of the glacier is discovered in that weird section of Menotomy 
Rocks Park known now as always within the memory of any 
here as "Devil's Den." Another reminder of that far distant 
past is the morain on the south side of the street or lane w^hich 
is the southern boundary of the Park, said by one assuming to 
be a judge, and at any rate a well known expert, to be the finest 
of the sort in all eastern Massachusetts. 

One of the earlier papers presented at a meeting of Arlington 
Historical Society, was "Massachusetts Avenue as I Remember 
it Sixty Years Ago," by Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore. From it 
the following paragraphs have been culled as a fitting closing 
to the record of this decade. 

First on the south side of Massachusetts avenue and east of 
the great elms that for a century had arched this entrance to 
the town (one of which is still standing in a little protecting 
inclosure) was and is the Jonathan Whittemore house. It is 
near the street line, but there was a wide section of land on 
either side, this farm land stretching back southerly to an 
extent which made this estate rank with the largest in the 
town. The house is an excellent type of the two-story brick 
ends and wooden front and back dwellings within the town's 
limits that evidence the wealth and social standing of their 
owners. 

The farm adjoining this Whittemore estate belonged to Samuel 
Butterfield. His house was a two-story frame building with 
"hip" roof. His son Samuel remodeled it into its present form. 
Like his father, he was a leader and prominent in town affairs, 
and in his day largely increased his inheritance. The westerly 
line of this estate was "Weir lane," now Lake street. 

On the opposite side of Lake street was the house of Francis 



Past and Present 91 



Yates. The land had a narrow frontage on ^lassachusetts 
avenue, but extended to Spy Pond on Lake street. 

Next in order was the hirge estate of Abner Peirce. the prin- 
cipal building on it being his "country store." though the house 
was attractive and commodious. In amount of business trans- 
acted, the store was a close rival of the older "Russell Store" 
at the Center, and as a merchant Abner Peirce was a success. 
Some years later Mr. Peirce removed his dwelling house (a two- 
story frame "hip" roof building with broad piazza) to the oppo- 
site side of the street, where it remained until torn down within 
a recent period to make a place for William A. ^fuller's modern 
residence. On the original site Abner Peirce built the house 
owned for many years by the late John P. Squire and now 
occupied by his son-in-law, Walter L. Hill. 

George Peirce (no relation to Abner) owned the estate adjoining, 
and his dwelling, known as the Thomas D. Cook house, tells its 
own story of an earlier generation, both in form and evidences of 
age it bears. It was on this farm, on the sloping southern 
exposure towards Spy Pond, that raising garden produce under 
glass was commenced. It has developed into the hothouse 
methods which make Arlington famous as a grower of garden 
produce. Near Linwood street stood a schoolhouse and the 
"Town Pound" was close by. 

James Russell, 2d, owned the next block of land and his house, 
now the property of Walter -, 

K.Hutchinson, also remains to 
show another type of dwelling 
in vogue at that period. Mrs. 
Russell survived her husband 
many years. In early life she 
had been one of the school 
teachers of the town, and at 
her death all her propertv was 

, ^"11 BLAKE HOMES! EAu ino.-, ;:J-+ ivi^ss. Hve • 

given to the town lor school 

purposes.' The residence of Stephen Blake, still standing, which 
adjoins this property, was the birthplace of the Blake brothers, 
and the wives of the Messrs. Wood and John S. Crosbv. 




92 Town of Arlington 

Abner P. Wyman, at the time of his death, was one of our 
most successful garden farmers, owning nearly all the present 
holdings of his sons Franklin and Daniel on Lake street, but 
at this time he was engaged in blacksmithing. His shop was 
next to the Russell farm and his sign read, " Earth Forks, Pitch 
Forks, Hoes." Here he began also the making of ice tools, out 
of which has developed the present Gifford-Wood Company, as 
he disposed of his business to William T. Wood when he decided 
to go to farming and Air. Wood made ice tools his specialty. 

The house and shop on the corner of Avon place was built by 
Mr. William L. Clark, who here carried on harness making quite 
extensively. 

Next came the estate of Amos Whittemore, of wool card fame. 
The lot extended several hundred feet along the avenue and ran 
back to Spy Pond. The dwelling stood not far from the street, 
about the center on the street line. The factory was in the rear 
and about the middle of this lot. "The house was originally 
called the Beal house, and before the Revolution was owned by 
a Tory family. It was a very large building, with a long parlor 
on one side of the entrance. A granddaughter remembered that 
it had a handsome tiled fireplace and that the walls were papered 
with red velvet paper. The hall in the center had winding stairs; 
on the opposite side of the parlor were two rooms. The dining 
room was in the rear, as was also another room called 'the shop,' 
where the inventor spent much of his time." A fire destroyed 
this fine property, and all will agree with Mrs. Margaret L. Sears, 
a descendant, who wrote the foregoing, that "It is to be deplored 
that this good example of Colonial architecture should be lost to 
the town. Had it remained standing it might be classed with 
the Royall House of iMedford and others of that style." 

Next to the Whittemore estate was an old dwelling then 
occupied by Nathan Robbins, senior, torn down many years ago, 
and on an adjoining lot John P. Daniels had a blacksmith shop. 
The Joshua Robbins house came next. This was a large, brick- 
end, substantial building (still standing), the upper story in use 
as a tenement, fish market and bakery on street floor. 

The Henry Swan house, the next dwelling on this side, was 



Past and Present 



93 



removed in 1876 to make a place for Swan's Block, was of wood 
and the same style as the Blake house. The Dexter homestead 
was then an imposing building, but the recent erection of a one- 
story extension to the street line has not only partially hidden 
the dwelling but rol)bed it of its stately proportions. Here the 
Puljlic (now Robbins) Library was stored and Mr. Dexter was 
Hbrarian. 

iMerrifield's tin shop adjoined the Dexter property. Then came 




CORNER OF MASS. AVE. AND PLEASANT ST. 
Prior to I 872 



the drug store kept by King & Thaxter ; next a buikling used 
for a harness shop, paint shop, barber shop. Samuel Swan's 
store was in the building on the corner of Pleasant street and 
Massachusetts avenue. The accompanying picture, taken in 1872, 
shows several of these buildings. 

The First Parish Church appeared then as it does today : the 
building burned in 1856 being replaced by the present structure, 
built on the same plan. 

Next to the church was the William Whittemore mansion and 
card factory. Then, and for many years afterwards, this building 



94 



Town of Arlington 



was the largest and most picturesque private dwelling in the 
town. At this time it was owned by the late Nathan Robbins. 
At his death it passed to his grandchildren, who are its present 
owners in a new location, as shown in the picture of Robbins 
Library in the library section of this book. On this estate was 
another dwelling house of ordinary dimensions, torn down a few 
years ago. 

This group of buildings was owned and occu]3ied l^y Jesse P. 




COTTING HOUSE AND BAKERY 

Pattee, who carried on bread and cracker baking very extensively. 
All have been recently torn down to clear the "Town House Site/^ 
as it is now called. 

On the opposite corner of Academy street stood the Hannah 
Locke house, now owned b}^ Dr. Keegan, and next to it a double 
house, the property of the Teel family, owners of several buildings, 
including the famous "Jason Russell house," the scene of the 
special tragedy enacted here April 19, 1775, and the old Teel 
homestead, both of which are still preserved, but on other lots 
of land. 



Past and Present 



95 



The Lewis P. Bartlett house, on the westerly corner of what is 
now known as Bartlett avenue, was similar to that owned by 
William Cutter and which his wife Mar}^ willed to the Baptist 
society for a parsonage. It is now the property of Alexander 
H. Seaver. 

The Henry J. Locke house, which came next, has been remod- 
eled, but the rear portion, which antedates the Revolutionary 
period (being the old Deacon Adams place) was retained intact, 




LOCKE HOMESTEAD 

making that homestead of special historic interest to Arlington, 
as it was from the L portion of the Locke house that the British 
soldiers, on the 19th of April, 1775, stole the solid silver com- 
munion service belonging to First Parish Church. 

Beyond the stretch of this great Locke farm was almost a row 
of houses, for at th's time "High street," as the westerly section 
of Massachusetts avenue was then called, was more nearly the 
business center than what is now spoken of as the "Center." 
There were located the residences of William Schouler (after- 
wards Adjutant-General of the state), William H. Richardson, 



96 



Town of Arlington 




FESSENDEN HOUSE 



"Converse house," William Dickson (house and shop), Elijah 
Cutter (house and shops), William Prentiss, Elbridge Locke, 
Rebecca Russell, David Hill (recently torn down), David and 
Daniel Clark. 

The John Schouler house, later the property of Deacon John C. 

Hobbs and now owned by 
William H. Brine, was then, 
as it is now, an estate to 
attract notice. Then came the 
residence of Henry Welling- 
ton, the "Eureka" fire-engine 
house, the homes of Abijah 
Frost and Bowen Riissell. 
The residences of Philip B. 
and Ichabod Fessenden stood 
on either side of what is now Fessenden road. The Philip B. 
house was removed to make a place for the modern building 
erected on the old site by the late Charles Schwamb; the Ichabod 
house still stands on the westerly side of Fessenden road, and 
remodeled inside as well as outside, was long the residence of 
John D. Freeman. 

The Gershom Cutter house stood next to the old brick school- 
house of this district, built in 1801. 

Having reached the road to "Peirce Hill" (now Arlington 
Heights) known as Appleton street, we will go back to the starting 
point and view the north side of Massachusetts avenue. 

With the exception of houses belonging to Eliakim Nason and 
Debbie Butterfield, all the section known as the "Henderson 
District" was vacant land to the present line of Cleveland street. 
There stood the Crane house. Next came the Williams house; 
the familiar Belknap estate ; Deacon Henry Mott cottage house 
well back from the street; the old "Black Horse Tavern;" 
the old Hovey house and shop; Abbott Allen house; the old 
pre-revolutionary Wyman house; Josiah Russell house, since re- 
moved to Franklin street; Philip Whittemore estate; the Union 
District schoolhouse (where Franklin street now joins the avenue) ; 
Thomas E. Thorpe house, now on the west corner of this street; 



Past and Present 



97 




ARLINGTON HOUSE 
Built 1826 



furniture factory of Lane & Croome; the houses of Henry and 
Amos Whittemore; and the house and store of John Fowle. The 
latter was removed in 1887 to make a place for the civil war 
monument. 

Whittemore's Hotel, now the Arlington House, was then as 
now a conspicuous object. 
The signs on the same are so 
misleading, and there is such 
general misinformation re- 
garding the erection and early 
ownership of this building, 
it is worth all it will cost in 
space to put in permanent 
and easily accessible form its 
true history. ^Ir.s. James A. 
Bailey, a direct descendant 
of the builder and historian of the Peirce family, has furnished 
the editor with the following: 

In 1826 Jonas Peirce built the tavern on the corner of ^ledford 
street and ]\Iassachusetts avenue. The estimated cost was $7,000, 
but it far exceeded that amount, which so worried the owner that 
after returning from his regular trips to Boston market, he often 
went to the Center to assist the builders. When the building 
was completed it was carried on in his name by his son and son-in- 
law as a hotel. In ^lay, 1829, Frederick H. Hedge was ordained 
minister of the First Congregational (Unitarian) Church. The 
collation was served at this tavern, the congregation marching 
thither in a body, headed by a brass band. ... In his will 
Jonas Peirce left the tavern to his son and daughter, and by them 
it was leased to a man named Gordon, and for a time was knoAvn 
as ' ' Gordon's Hotel.' ' Later it w^as sold to Philip Whittemore and 
given the name of "Whittemore's Hotel." The present owner 
changed the name to "Arlington House" in 1873, and in the spring 
of 1875 had the big sign '' Cooper Tavern — 1775" painted on the 
easterly end. A paint brush is a slimsy foundation on which 
to build a relic of past days. 

On the opposite corner was "Moses Proctor's store," a two- 
story building with tenement and offices over the store. From 
one of these rooms Captain Ingalls went out in answer to his 



98 



Town of Arlington 



country's call in 1861, to yield up his life in the earlier part of the 
great war for the preservation of the Union. 

Where the R. W. Shattuck building now stands was a dwelling 
afterwards destroyed by fire. Hon. James Russell occupied the 
fine estate on the corner of Mystic street, now inclosed by build- 
ings constituting Finance Block, to make room for which his 
"office" building was removed. The accompanying picture 




SQUIRE RUSSELL HOUSE 
Correr Mystic St. and Mass, Ave. on left Masonic Building and Arlington House on right 



shows that estate as I remember it, though INIystic street did not 
at that time terminate at Massachusetts avenue. 

The Deacon Adams house stood on the railroad roadbed of 
the Boston and INIaine Railroad, and to make room for it this 
historic old building, scarred by bullets fired into it by the British 
soldiery on their retreat through this town, April 19, 1775, was 
first shorn of a considerable section and later torn down. Fortu- 
nately a good picture of this old building is in existence, from 
W'hich the photograph rejjroduced on page 99 was taken. 

Buildings for business purposes occupied the present Town Hall 
site, and the George C. Russell house, removed to Russell terrace 
to make room for Post Office Block, came next. 

The Col. Thomas Russell house is still in its original place 



Past and Present 



99 



on the corner of the way 
to the raih'oad depot, bnt 
the ancient grocery which 
he and his father kept was 
torn down last year to make 
room for the extension of 
Associates' Building. 

Ephraim Cutter home- 
stead on the opposite corner 





BIT OF MASS. AV. 
Eph. Cutter House, Russell store, Russell houses 

of Water street remains 
much as it w^as formerly. 
A building, since removed 
to Beacon street, stood 
where Court street is no\v 
located, but one of the 
Jesse Pattee houses, the 
old building on the corner 
of Central street, remains. 
Next to the Univer- 
salist Church, erected a 
short time previously, 
stood, as it stands to- 
day, the Stephen Cutter 
house, dating back years 
before the Revolution. 



ADAMS HOUSE 
Erected about I 680. Portion removed in 
1846 to make way for the steam R.R. 
The tree shown was destroyed in the 
tornado of 1871. 

It is now a part of the Fred 
^I. Chase estate. The Thomas 
Ramsdell house, recognizable 
today by its old-time piazza, 
though standing now in a 
group of several houses, was 




STEPHEN CUTTER HOUSE 
Now owned by Fred. M. Chase 



LOFa 



100 



Town of Arlington 




CAPT. EDW. RUSSELL HOUSE 



the only house except the Avery cottage before coming to the 
Baptist Church. 

The Chadwick house (now George A. Teel) was used for a 
private school, and on a somewhat distant lot was the house of 
Thomas Hall, which Mr. Kimball removed to Beacon street, 
when the building now occupied by his heirs was erected. Isaac 
Hall lived over his wheelwright shop, which still stands con- 
spicuous for its unlikeness to any of the adjacent property. 

The Robert Schouler house 
is now as then on the west 
corner of Schouler court, 
and his estate joined that 
of James A. E. Bailey (mem- 
ber of the firm of Welch & 
Griffiths), father of James 
A. Bailey, often chosen to 
public office here, and grand- 
father of Ex-Senator Bailey. 
The Edward Russell house 
of Revolutionary time, "looked all the smaller in contrast with 
the stately building to the east, but its two next door neighbors 
on the west, still standing, made this less conspicuous. 

The large house on the corner of Grove street was remodeled in 
1906, obliterating another of Arlington's historic landmarks. On 
the corner of Brattle street 
stood the second building 
erected by the Baptist Society 
for church purposes; it had 
then been remodeled into a 
double dwelling house, and 
its general appearance is 
little changed. 

Tufts Tavern, known more 
recently as "George Russell 
Hotel," which was then the next building on the street, is one of 
the oldest buildings now standing in town and has undergone no 
material change in the past sixty years. It was Tufts Tavern 




TUFTS TAVERN 
Built long before Revolution 



Past and Present 101 



in Revolutionary time and in the military history section will 
be found a decidedly interesting story connected with it from 
the pen of Mrs. Whittemore. 

The Fletcher family owned the large estate on the westerly 
corner of Brattle street, and what is now the J. F. Hobbs estate 
was the property of Nathan Robbins. The Ichabod Fessenden 
residence was next in order, and he used the mill privilege just 
below for his business. Jefferson Cutter house occupied the 
next lot; the dwelling and mill privilege now the property of the 
Theodore Schwamb Company was then owned and operated by 
Paul Dodge; Edward S. Farmer now owns the old Farmer home- 
stead on the corner of Forest street; and on the opposite corner 
is the building formerly owned by Abel Locke, still in a good 
state of preservation, the Captain Benjamin Locke House, one of 
the most picturesque of all the old buildings of which Arlington 
can boast. 

The John A. P. Peirce house stood at the "Foot of the Rocks," 
as it does in 1907, and near by is the next of the numerous build- 
ings used for business purposes on Mill Brook. 

In closing the paper from which these items regarding Arling- 
ton's main thoroughfare have been culled, Mrs. Whittemore 
said: 

This is an outline of Massachusetts avenue from Alewife Brook 
to the "Foot of the Rocks," as I recall its general features 
before the introduction of the steam railroad. It has interested 
me to gather these items from the pages of memory. It is to be 
hoped the comparisons it will enable others to make between 
this and a time somewhat removed, will prove to be both inter- 
esting and instructive. 



CHAPTER III 



1847 — 1857 



Population in 1850, 2,202. Population in 1855, 2,670. 

Development of Pleasant street section. — Mystic street opened for fine 
estates. — County Commissioners order the town to build new outlet 
to Center. — The tornado of 1851. — Building Town Hall, — a ten 
year problem and how it was solved. — New fire engines bought. — 
Know-Nothing movement. — New town clock. 

THIS decade in Arlington's, history marks a development 
that has certainly never been excelled in picturesqueness 
and beauty, if it has been equaled in money value. Time has 
wrought many changes, but the street which was so appropriately 
named "Pleasant" when a general naming of streets was adopted 
in 1846, remains today the one of all others calculated to lure 
the pleasure-seeking pedestrian or the, perhaps, more fortunate 
possessor of fine driving turnout or automobile. 

For many years it was the center of the social life of the town, 
nearly all the handsome homes housing families of considerable 
size, and its ample lawns were time and again given up to 
public events by the generous owners. 

It was nearly two hundred years after this "road from Water- 
town to Cooke's mill in Menotomy" that this transformation 
occurred, but the beautiful environment was there awaiting the 
advent of wealth and cultivated taste to improve and enhance. 

As a proper prelude to the details of the remarkable develop- 
ment spoken of, some further allusion to the dwellings on this 
street prior to this date will be appropriate. 

In 1740 Parson Cooke built his house on this street near what 
is now Maple street; his successor in the pastoral office. Rev. 
Thaddeus Fiske, D.D., selected the adjoining lot on the south 

102 



Past and Present 



103 




for his homestead in 1791. These were the first houses to be 
built on this thoroughfare and dates given prove that the former 
was the only house on this street in 1775, within what is now 
Arlington. 

The Lane house, now owned by the third generation (George 
W. Lane), was the first residence added in the vicinity. A few 
years later (in 1811) Dr. Timothy Wellington built the notable 
landmark on the corner of Wellington street. The Jarvis house 
and Cutter residence date back 
to the thirties of the past cen- 
tury, but had no neighbors for 
many years. 

William Cotting, the baker, 
owned a wide strip of land 
extending southward from 
his bakery on ^Massachusetts 
avenue (known for so many 
years as Menotomy Hall) to 
what is now Kensington Park, 
bounded on the east by the 
Whittemore, Cooke, Fiske, and 
other lands; west by the Russell farm. ^liles T. Gardner 
married Mr. Cotting's daughter, ^lartha E., in 1838, and on a 
portion of this large Cotting estate built the house and laid out 
the grounds of the picturesque place between Irving and Gray 
streets. A few years later Air. Gardner sold this house and 
the large lot of land on which it stands to Charles Sanders (he 
who gave the theater bearing his name to Harvard College). It 
was from Mr. Sanders that George H. Gray purchased this ex- 
tensive property. He was a Boston merchant who proved the 
forerunner of a considerable number of his class that within a 
few years chose Arlington for a home and Pleasant street for a 
location; but the next dwelling to be erected on this street was 
strikingly different in character. 

This was a little cottage house (now enlarged and in a new 
location the home of Mr. George Y. Wellington) built where the 
W. A. Taft house now stands by William M. Chase (the town 



DR. TIMOTHY WELLINGTON HOUSE 
Built 181 1-12, Now owned by Dr. Richard L. 
Hodgdon heirs 



104 



Town of Arlington 



clerk of Arlington in 1842) and sold to .Mr. Wellington by the 
late David P. Green when he erected the Taft house. 

In 1843 Rev. William Ware, the then pastor of First Parish 
Church, built the handsome but secluded house on the grounds 
known as the Peabody estate, with its heavy surrounding stone 
wall and ornate gateway. This fine property was for some 
years in the possession of Charles Griffiths, of saw-making fame, 
prior to its passing to the present owner, Francis Peabody, the 
Boston banker. 

Adjoining this estate is that of the late Samuel D. Hicks, 
built by William Warren, sold by him to David Horton, a brother 

of the first pastor of the Ortho- 
dox Congregational Church, 
by him sold to James R. 
Bayley, Mr. Hicks purchasing 
of the latter and greatly im- 
proving it. 
I ^^^HCV^F^fP'!' Deacon John Field was the 
next addition to this group of 
Boston merchants who within 
a few years acquired large 
estates on this street. He 
bought of William Warren the broad acres on which he built 
the Colman house (as it is now known) and made the grounds 
around it attractive by the aid of the landscape gardener. Three 
years later his associate in the office of deacon of the Ortho- 
dox Congregational Church, Joseph Burrage, built the A. D. 
Hoitt place. The Captain Hopkins house, now the residence of 
Hon. James A. Bailey, Jr., was built the same year, the old Cutter 
house he had previously occupied being removed to Lake street, 
and is still located on the east side and next to the railroad tracks. 
August 15, 1850, Abel G. Peck bought of the trustees of the 
Nathaniel Lombard estate the large block of land on which the 
Peck mansion house is still the most conspicuous adornment. 
At this time (1850) the site was occupied by the old First Parish 
Church building (built in 1734), removed to that spot in 1804, 
as described in Chapter I, to make room for the new edifice. 




SAMUEL D. HICKS ESTATE 



Past and Present 



105 




ABEL G. PECK HOUSE 



This building Mr. Peck sold to 

be removed. The purchaser 

sawed it into equal sections 

so it could be handled and re- 
moved it to its present location 

on Pleasant street. It was the 

home of Addison Gage for a 

few years, and later of his 

son Charles 0. Gage until 

his death. The barn was 

moved to a lot farther south, 

converted into a dwelling, and is now the property of the 

George T. Freeman heirs. In 
1852 Hon. John Schouler built 
the only wholly brick dwelling 
on this street, patterned in 
general outline after the Town 
Hall building then in course 
of construction, and with its 
wide sweep of land in front 
and ample grounds surround- 
ing, made a specially attractive 
dwelling. 

Three years later, in 1855, 

the culmination of this development of Pleasant street section 

was reached. Addison Gage, 

head of the great ice harvest- 

ing interests of Boston, and 

then occupying the remodeled 

church building, bought of 

Rev. Thaddeus Fiske a strip 

several hundred feet on Pleas- 
ant street and extending back 

to Spy Pond, as do all the 

estates previously named. 

Well back from the street so 

as to secure a wide stretch of lawn, Mr. Gage erected an imposing 



BM^QHff^' 


.'^'.ilBV^^BSH^I^BB 


W^^B^^Im^SK\ ^A^m 


^'^'^^^^s^fljlKflSByH 


iE»^^^aH 


faf^^^^H 


B^^^i'^^^^l 


^ /"^hiH 




El 



FIRST CHURCH BUILDING ERECTED IN I 7 34 
Now 208 Pieisant St. 




ADDISON GAGE MANSION 



106 Town of Arlington 

dwelling, with barn to match. The purchase of this Gage estate 
by Arlington Finance Club and removal of buildings to a loca- 
tion on Addison street which was the initial operation in opening 
there a new residential section, is of too recent a date to need 
more than this passing allusion. The corner lots are occupied by 
dwellings and stables owned by Henry Hornblower and Charles 
J. Devereaux, and adjoining estates are, like these, picturesque 
and attractive. 

As has been stated, the rear line of a majority of the estates 
named was Spy Pond, and boating and sailing on the lake was 
naturally a pastime with the group of young people, and the boat- 
houses added to the picturesqueness of this charming bit of inland 
water. But it was then, as it is now, a treacherous place, and 
when after several drownings and many narrow escapes there was 
a culmination in an event that robbed three homes of daughters 
just advancing to womanhood, the use of yachts on the lake was 
discontinued and it is many years since there has been a sailing 
regatta on Spy Pond, a sport that had until then been the star 
event of any local celebration or national holiday festivity. 

Nearly contemporaneous with the development of Pleasant 
street, as has been already outlined, came another material addi- 
tion to the taxable property of the town on Mystic street. April 
15, 1845, William J. Niles of Boston bought of Luke Wyman 
fifteen acres of land on this street, the northern boundary being 
Mystic Lake, and erected a summer home for himself and family, 
which is still occupied every summer by his three surviving 
daughters. The stately dwelling, picturesque tower and finely 
cared for grounds make a pleasing picture. 

The estate on rising ground nearly opposite was bought of 
Samuel Adams by Daniel Draper in 1855, and by him sold the 
same year to James C. Converse, who in 1870 sold it to Nathaniel 
C. Nash. For many years past it has been the Howard W. Spurr 
homestead. 

Lucius B. Horton built the adjoining house and buildings, 
which estate passed to the late William Stowe by deed dated 
July 5, 1862. In recent years it has changed hands two or three 
times and is now the property of George A. Kimball. 



Past and Present 107 



Adolphus Davis, who niurried ti daughter of Daniel Draper, 
erected- the cottage house on that wide tract of land through 
which Davis and Draper avenues now give access to numerous 
new dwellings erected since the estate was divided into house 
lots. 

It might well be noted in passing, that this gain in population 
during the period under consideration brought to the Orthodox 
Congregational Church substantial financial help. Deacons Field 
and Burrage on Pleasant street, and ]\Ir. Niles on Mystic street, 
were generous contributors to church and society expenses, and 
as they also sent their contributions to missionary work through 
the church channels, for many years the Arlington church 
headed the list of contributions by the Suffolk North Conference 
of which it was a member. 

There is also a matter of street making which is not out of place 
here. It will be new to most people and will remind others of 
details well worth recalling after all these years. 

The way to the Center for residents of ^lystic street, until 1856, 
was through what is now Chestnut street and Medford street. 
Soon after the late William J. Niles established his summer home 
at the handsome estate on Mystic street he interested his neighbors 
in joining with him in an effort to have the town cut through the 
vacant lot of the Squire Russell estate where the street is now 
located. The town refused to entertain the proposition. Mr. 
Niles and his backers appealed to the County Commissioners, and 
on June 4, 1856, the commissioners issued the following: 

We adjudge that the said town of West Cambridge (now 
Arlington) unreasonably refused to accept said town way; and we 
approve and allow the same and direct the laying out and accep- 
tance to be recorded by the Town Clerk of said town of West 
Cambridge, that the same may be established and known as a 
town way, with costs of hearing. 

Leonard Huntress, 
John K. Going, 
p. h. sweetser, 

Commissioners. 



108 Town of Arlington 



The Tornado of 1851. 

Friday, August 22, 1851, the center portion of Arlington was 
devastated by a tornado which, beginning its course in Wayland, 
passed over Weston and Waltham, doing considerable damage, 
but on reaching Arlington wrecked everything in its path and 
swept on to Medford, creating equal havoc, and then onward over 
adjacent territory and thence to the sea. Judge Parmenter, in his 
sketch for " Middlesex County History," says that those who saw 
it described it as a dark cloud sweeping over the surface of the 
country with frightful speed; its base now touching the earth and 
now bounding up for a little to return again farther on. Its 
shape was variously compared to a spreading elm, an upright 
column, to an hourglass, and to an inverted cone — discrep- 
ancies probably to be attributed to the different positions of the 
observers, to the excitement of the moment, and perhaps to actual 
changes of shape. One eye-witness vividly compared it to an 
elephant's trunk, waving a little from side to side and sucking 
up everything that came in its way. Its path was straight for 
the most part, with curious eddies and turns here and there. It 
left behind it in Arlington a devastated swath which was, in most 
places, from thirty to fifty rods wide, although the track was at 
some points wider and at some narrower than this. 

The storm occurred about half past five o'clock on a hot. sultry 
summer afternoon. There had been during the day a light south- 
west wind, but for an hour before the tornado there was an almost 
perfect calm. Without warning the storm struck this town at the 
premises of James Brown (now a part of Belmont) on the Wal- 
tham line and swept across it, tearing its way through woods, 
orchards, and cornfields. It crossed Pleasant street near what is 
now the Belmont boundary and went straight on across the land 
of Captain Hopkins, Doctor Wellington, and other residents on 
the eastern side of the street; then over the northeast corner of 
Spy Pond, demolishing the ice houses at the water's edge; then 
across the highway at a point near Franklin street, wreaking 
destruction on store, schoolhouse, and dwellings, and so on till it 



Past and Present 109 



crossed Mystic River about fifty rods below the Medford street 
bridge. The tornado lasted a very few minutes, but in that time 
it did damage in Arlington to the extent of nearly twenty-five 
thousand dollars. Happily no lives were lost and no person was 
injured. 

^ledford people were less fortunate. One man was killed, a 
young man had both feet crushed so badly that amputation was 
necessary, and five others were seriously hurt. 

Arlington citizens, at a public meeting, raised $1219 to relieve 
the more needy suffering loss by the tornado. 

The storm had several noticeable features much commented on 
at the time. As it crossed Spy Pond it took up a great deal of 
water, and this, mingled with the sand and gravel of the railway 
embankment and the dust of the highway, splashed everything 
with a lijjeral coating of gravelly mud. When there was any 
vertical motion it was a lifting motion — things were taken up 
into the air, not beaten down to the earth. Trees generally 
resisted the disintegrated force of the wind, but buildings were 
racked or shattered. In Medford, where very careful observa- 
tions were made, few traces of rotary motion were found, but in 
one place in this town, where a cornfield was flattened before the 
blast, the corn lay with the tops pointed in and toward the wind- 
ward, on both sides of the central line of the track, as if two 
enormous wheels with vertical axes, turning in opposite direc- 
tions and playing into each other like cogwheels, had passed 
through the field. 

Building of Town Hall. 

For fifty-five years Arlington Town Hall has stood the one 
conspicuous feature of the town's center, pleasing in architectural 
design and even now fairly well meeting the purposes for which 
it was built. The recent purchase of land for a Town Hall site 
is a prophecy that before long its use for municipal purposes will 
cease. Consequently it is eminently proper that the paucity of 
the official records of the town should be here supplemented 
with information obtained from other documents recently discov- 
ered, reinforced with facts obtained from some who remember 



no 



Tow7i of Arlirigton 



the erection of the building and events leading up to the final 
divorcement of the town from the church. 

In 1852, at the annual town meeting in March, the town voted 
to elect a committee of five "with full powers to select a site and 
build thereon a Town Hall." The committee chosen consisted 




ARLI NGTON TOWN HALL 
B'jilt 1852 



of Jesse Bucknam, Samuel Butterfield, William Hill, 2d, John 
Schouler, George C. Russell. 

The town records give no further information, but other docu- 
ments prove this to have been the culmination of long and delib- 
erate consideration, and not the precipitate action the meager 
record would lead one to infer. 

From the testimony of several who well recall all the details, 
we discover that for several years the old First Parish Church 
had been generally unsatisfactory as a place for holding town 



Past and Present 111 



meetings, on account of sectional prejudices and divisions on 
religious matters which happily long since ceased to exist. 

In 1839 a committee chosen to consider this matter reported 
that the Baptist Church could be had for the same price the town 
was paying the First Parish (.S50 a year), or the vestry for $25 a 
year. Also that Philip Whittemore would rent his hall for $30 
a year, but the town did not change the place of meeting. 

In 1847 Mansur W. Marsh, John Schouler, Josiah H. Russell 
were named as a committee to see what could be done about a 
site on which to erect a town building. This committee reported 
that "Closes Proctor will sell his lot on the corner of Metlford 
street and Massachusetts avenue for such a purpose, at a 
reasonable price, but would sell for no other purpose." "The 
lot between Deacon Ephraim Cutter and Solon Hardy lots can 
be bought for $1000." The committee expressed the opinion 
that a suitable building could be erected for $6000. 

In 1848 the matter of better hall accommodations in which to 
transact town business was presented in the form of a numer- 
ously signed petition to the selectmen, and the year following 
another committee was chosen to investigate and report to the 
town all available sites and cost of erecting a suitable public 
building. Their report was to the effect that Hon. James Russell 
would sell a lot 132 X 132, fronting on ^lystic street (the pres- 
ent Russell Park site) for .$6000; the Swan heirs would sell for 
$10,000 the block of land on the corner of Massachusetts avenue 
and Pleasant street but would not sell any part separately; that 
John P. Daniels would sell his lot (75 feet on Massachusetts avenue 
200 feet deep) for $4000; James M. Chase offered his place next to 
the Universalist Church for $2500; Thomas J. Russell proposed a 
ninety-nine year lease of the lot corner of Massachusetts avenue 
and Water street. "The committee had considered the Adams 
lot (present site of Town Hall) and deemed it inadequate." This 
report is signed by John Jarvis, James ^I. Chase, David W. 
Horton, W. J. Lane, John Schouler. 

The committee chosen in 1852, however, chose the Adams 
lot, deemed inadequate, and having secured a release from the 
railroad of a triangular piece sufficient to square the lot, pur- 



112 Town of Arlington 

chased of Samuel Adams for $4000 the land on which Town 
Hall stands. The plans presented by Melvin & Yomig, archi- 
tects of Boston, were approved; contract for building was let to 
Wheeler & Drake of that city. The total cost was $22,987.37, 
of wiiich $970.09 was for furniture and fixtures, $.360 for plans, 
$330 for services of the committee. 

Except the word "accepted" in the handwriting of the town 
clerk on the back of the report of the committee authorized to 
select a site and build a town hall, there is no record of formal 
acceptance of the building by the town. The warrant for the 
annual March meeting of 1853, however, "warned" citizens to 
assemble in Town Hall. That meeting accepted, with thanks, 
the gift of busts still adorning the Avails, presented by Nathan 
Robbins, Joseph S. Potter, Daniel W. Horton, Joshua Dodge, 
Robert Schouler, Jesse Bucknam, George C. Russell, John Schouler. 
Later a gilded plow was added to adorn the walls, the gift of 
Mr. Schouler. The building committee received no thanks, so 
far as. the record shows. 

Mrs. Almira T. Whittemore remembers that March 7, 1853, 
there were interesting exercises in connection with the transfer of 
Town Hall to the town from the building committee, but would 
not trust her memory as to the details of the program. On the 
evening of March 8, the event was celebrated with a grand ball 
which is still to her a pleasant memory. She distinctly recalls 
seeing on the occasion of the ball Squire Russell, the dignitary of 
the town, also a man of fine presence and with the deportment 
of an aristocrat, walk into the hall with his wife on one arm 
and on the other Miss Lucy Caroline Whittemore, the belle of 
the town and only daughter of Gershom Whittemore, another 
prominent citizen. Mrs. Russell wore a head dress of black lace 
which fell in voluminous folds over her shoulders, and the group, 
in the striking finery of those days, made a picture which still 
lingers in "memory dear." Mrs. Nathan Robbins (many years 
deceased) who was a granddaughter of Capt. John Parker who 
led the ^linute-men at the Battle of Lexington, was also present 
and much interest centered on her appearance, as it was whis- 
pered that her handsome costume would be further enhanced by 



Past and Present 113 



a superb diamond brooch surrounded by pearls. Such pieces of 
jewelry were not as numerous as they are now, and in the minds 
of the little community bespoke great possessions and an object 
to regard with admiration if not awe. 

The stairway originally was a direct flight from the main 
entrance to the hall. Messrs. Prescott & Proctor occupied the 
entire space below the hall for a dry goods emporium. Later 
the easterly half of this space was used for a post office in front 
and town offices in the rear of it, and about the same time the 
public library was assigned the northerly section. The front 
basement was used as a justice court for several years, cells 
having been previously built in the rear of this section. Since 
1897 the entire street floor has been devoted to municipal uses, 
accommodating all the boards except School Committee, which 
now has rooms in High school building. 

In 1853 Luke Agur, who for a considerable term had served 
the town as undertaker, resigned his office, and John B. Hartwell 
was appointed. In 1868 he was succeeded by his son, J. Henry 
Hartwell, later his son, Charles H., was admitted to partnership 
and the business is still carried on by him under the old firm 
name. 

In 1853 the town bought two new fire engines of the Howard 
& Davis pattern, and two years later established a fire depart- 
ment, relieving the selectmen, who until this time had acted as 
fire wardens or engineers. Full details of this will be found in 
the special article devoted to the fire department, prepared by 
Mr. Warren A. Peirce. 

In 1854 The Arlington Gas Light Company was incorporated, 
establishing its plant off Mystic street. 

The following year the fire department became a separate 
organization by the town's acceptance of the legislative act, but 
the principal business of the town from 1854 to 1859 was con- 
tending with residents of the southerly section of the town (now 
Belmont) who were demanding separation and incorporation as 
a township. 

The legacy of Dr. Wellington to the public library, and accep- 
tance of an act creating a fire department in Arlington, both 



114 Town of Arlington 

events occurring in 1855, are treated under separate headings 
and more than a mention of the fact would be superfluous. 

About the 3'ear 1855, originating where and organized by 
whom it would be extremely difficult to state definitely, appeared 
in this section a branch of a political party which was really 
national in its scope, based on an intense native Americanism, 
and because of its peculiar campaign methods was designated 
the " Know- Nothing Party." It proved to be the entering 
wedge which disrupted one national party and caused the dis- 
integration of another, as the sequel proved. Few drawn into 
the movement from either great party ever returned to its alle- 
giance. When the votes were counted at the November election 
in Arlington, it was discovered that Henry J. Gardner, the 
"Sam" candidate for Governor in this state, headed the poll 
more than two to one for either of the other three candidates. 

July 26, 1856, Michael Kenney was given the right to travel 
across the "training field" to and from the ice houses at Spy 
Pond, he to pay fifteen dollars. At the same time the selectmen 
ordered the seizure of a pile of lumber dumped on this lot by 
Gage, Sawyer & Co., showing a disposition on the part of the 
selectmen to protect the town's property, even if it was not used 
for town purposes. The lumber was released on payment of 
damages by the ice company. 

In 1856 the town bought a tower clock to be placed in the 
steeple of the First Parish Church, "provided the Parish will 
take charge of the same and keep it in repair." This arrange- 
ment still continues, with the repair section eliminated. 

At a meeting of the selectmen, March 2, 1857 (the record says 
it was an all day meeting) bills for the building of a new bridge 
across Mystic River at River street were approved, and a vote 
taken in favor of the acceptance of River street by the town 
passed. 



CHAPTER IV 



1857—1867 



Population in 1855, 2,670. Population in 1S60, 2,6SL 

Population in 1865, 2,760. 

Representative districts formed. — Arlington and Winchester constitute sixth 
^Middlesex. — The first horse cars. — Large section of land surrendered 
to form town of Belmont. — Street lighting with gas. — Russell Park 
accepted. — Flagstaff presented to town. — Civil War period. 

IT will doubtless be noted and commented on that during the 
ten years covering 1855-65, according to the figures given 
above, Arlington gained but ninety in population. The early part 
of this chapter deals with the creation of the town of Belmont by 
act of incorporation passed March 1, 1859. The United States 
census of 1860 gives the population of Belmont as 1198. A very 
large proportion of this population resided on territory that was 
formerly a part of Arlington. 

While by no stretch of imagination could the establishing of 
the "Great and General Court of Massachusetts" be construed to 
be any part of local history, it will be worth while to remind 
people that the town of which this territory was once a part was 
represented in the first General Court ever convened in this Com- 
monwealth, and that one of her first settlers, Capt. George Cooke, 
was a member of that august body. 

Under the charter of Charles I of England to John Endicott 
and others in 1628, "Governors, Assistants and all Freemen of 
the Colony," were to constitute a General Court for making laws 
and providing for enforcing the same. As this Court was com- 
posed of all the Freemen in the colony, and the officers were 
elected annually by a "show of hands," it was to all intents and 
purposes a town meeting presided over bj' a governor, or some 
other competent official. 

In the course of time the inevitable happened as plantations 

115 



116 Town of Arlington 



pushed out into the wilderness, — impossibiht}^ of all Freemen 
attending sessions of this General Court. In this dilemma the 
Freemen got together in their scattered communities and chose 
delegates from among themselves "with the power to do all things 
which they might do if personally present, except the right to 
elect officers of the Province or Colony." 

This first General Court of "representatives" assembled on the 
14th day of May, 1634, the places sending representatives being 
Newtowne (now Cambridge), Watertown, Charlestown, Boston, 
Roxbury, Dorchester, Saugus — this latter then including the 
territory embraced within the boundaries of Lynn and Salem. 

This in brief is the history of the General Court, and the plan 
then adopted was not materially changed until 1857, when the 
causes responsible for organizing a representative body (increase 
in population) made a modification of the original plan imperative. 
The "House," made up of a representative from every town and 
each city ward, had become unwieldy in size. 

The legislature of 1857 passed an amendment to the state 
constitution creating two hundred and forty representative dis- 
tricts, "equally as near as may be to their relative number of 
legal voters." May 1, 1857, this amendment was accepted. The 
make-up of the "districts" provided for was assigned to the 
county commissioners of the fourteen counties into which the 
state is divided. 

In making the districts for Middlesex County, the commis- 
sioners joined Winchester to Arlington to form the Sixth 
Middlesex District, and Moses Proctor of Arlington was the 
representative chosen for 1857. 

This union of Arhngton and Winchester to form a "district" 
continued under numerals changed from time to time, until ten 
years ago, when the growth of the two towns gave a voting 
strength largely in excess of the required number. In the new 
apportionment of the county, which must occur every ten years, 
Lexington was joined with Arlington to form a "representative 
district." This arrangement proved eminently satisfactory, and 
in the apportionment of 1906, Lexington and Arlington were 
joined for another decade. 



Past and Present 117 



Each boartl of county commissioners has evidently intended 
to arrange the districts to meet party obhgations, and the district 
of which Ariington has been a part for just fifty years has always 
been strongly Republican. But on several occasions local con- 
ditions have disturbed the arrangement and Arlington Demo- 
crats instead of Republicans have represented the district; Jesse 
Bacon in 1869, Samuel D. Hicks in 1875. 

Horse Car Line to Boston. 
__ At no time from the date 

M^^m^^^A;ixiqrg^ -r-g^ of running the first train 

"-£|£ l_--^l^ "- "^^^t^! ^^^*'^''^ ^^'^^' ^^^^ "Lexington & West 

~^-.-.:_ r--.-_-vi:— ">__.__ -_~~:i^ Cambridge Branch Railroad," 

until by purchase of the stock 
and franchise of the road it passed to the control of the present 
management l^y sjDecial act of the legislature, were the proph- 
ecies of the projectors or the expectations of patrons regarding 
facilities it was to afford for accommodating the traveling public 
realized in an}'^ marked degree. The "Branch" terminated at 
the "Brick Yards" station in Cambridge i^the old roadbed from 
Lake street to that point is still in use) where the local engine 
left the cars to be picked up by a train on the Fitchburg Rail- 
road to complete the trip to Boston. Delays were more than 
frequent on the main line; sometimes the branch train failed to 
make connection. The general dissatisfaction resulting from 
these inconveniences and annoyances led interested parties to 
look for means of relief. In 1856 the initial steps towards con- 
structing a horse railroad line to connect with one already in 
use between Cambridge and Boston, leased by the Union Horse 
Railroad Company, were taken. 

The plan presented was so generally approved by the citizens 
of Arlington, that not only was the right of way freely pledged 
to the men interested in securing the franchise, but a vote was 
passed in town meeting instructing the selectmen to assist the 
proposed corporation in obtaining a charter from the legislature. 

The charter of the West Cambridge Horse Railroad Company 
was granted May 28, 1857. It was nearly two years, however, 



118 Town of Arlington 

before the line was in operation, the first trip being made in 
June, 1859. Those most active in pushing the enterprise to 
completion (forming the corporation, selling stock, etc.) were 
Messrs. Jesse P. Pattee, Hon. John Schouler, Benjamin Poland, 
and when the road was ready the two first named gentlemen 
leased it for a term of ten years. 

The tracks were laid from Mr. Pattee's bakery, whose ample 
barn furnished accommodations for the horses and storing of cars 
(people will now locate it best if it is spoken of as the site of old 
Menotomy Hall), on the extreme southerly line of Massachusetts 
avenue as far east as Pond lane. There the track crossed the 
avenue at a sharp angle to the extreme northerly line of the 
main thoroughfare and held this to the easterly boundary of the 
town — Alewife Brook. 

When this new branch road was projected, the rails of the 
Cambridge line terminated at the bridge at Porter's Station, 
the stables being located at this point. By arrangement with 
the company operating the Cambridge lines, these tracks were 
extended westward to join the track of the West Cambridge 
Railroad Company, this section to be operated on a "pooling" 
plan satisfactory to both parties in interest. 

The fare to Cambridge was fixed at 10 cents; from Cambridge 
to Boston 10 cents; but the Arlington passenger could buy a 
ticket for 18 cents which was good for one passage to Boston. 
This rate obtained until the West End Company absorbed all the 
Cambridge and most of the Boston lines, when this local company 
also was included in the general transfer of rights and interests. 
Up to this time the cars ran once an hour, starting at 6 AM. 
from Arlington, the last car leaving Boston at 11.05 P.^I. 

In 1863, owing to the death of Mr. Pattee, the lease of the 
West Cambridge Railroad Company was transferred to George 
Y. Welhngton and the railroad was operated by him until the 
transfer to the West End R. R. Company above alluded to. 
William H. Pattee was one of the earlier conductors on this road 
and is possibly the only one now living, serving the road under 
the local management. 

Under the management of the W^est End Company and its 



Past and Present 119 



successor, the Boston Elevated, the rails were first transferred to 
the center of the avenue ; then a double track was laid. Subse- 
quently the line was extended to Arlington Heights and elec- 
tricity introduced as a substitute for horsepower. Fares were 
cut from time to time also, until now a passenger can ride from 
Arlington Heights to the utmost limit of the metropolitan district 
for the single fare of five cents. 

In the intervening years the Boston & Northern has opened a 
line to Winchester and beyond, the Boston Elevated has double- 
tracked Broadway and also made a direct connection with Med- 
ford, the Lexington & Boston joins the Elevated at Arlington 
Heights, all conspiring to make Arlington what it has become in 
the past few years, a center for electric car travel. 

In 1858 a new and wider bridge was built over Ale wife Brook 
by mutual agreement between Arlington selectmen and a com- 
mittee from Cambridge, that city to do the work and Arling- 
ton to meet its share of the expenses. The change materially 
improved the approach to Arlington from eastward. In this 
same year the legislature made a change in the laws regarding 
the sale of intoxicating liquors, requiring towns to appoint agents 
for the sale of liquors to be bought by the town, and at a meeting 
of the selectmen held May 31, Samuel Swan was appointed for 
one year. His successor in this office was Charles C. Sawyer. 

At this meeting the selectmen voted not to pay a surveyor's 
bill presented for approval, contracted by Jacob Hittinger for a 
survey of the lines of Concord turnpike. The next month Francis 
Gould was employed by the selectmen to make the survey. 

Mr. Hittinger was a prime mover in the securing of the incor- 
poration of the town of Belmont and this survey was, by natural 
inference, one of the preliminary steps. Though the official 
record does not so state, subsequent events show it to have 
been the case. 

A number of wealthy people from Boston had chosen that 
section south of Lake street as a place of residence, had built 
expensive mansions and laid out grounds that vied in extent 
and beauty with palatial estates in any section of the country. 

The large amount of wealth they represented would secure for 



120 Touyn of Arlington 

them an exceptionally low rate of taxation if the plan to divide 
the town could be carried through. Here we perhaps have the 
strong motive of the leaders and promoters of a division scheme. 
At least it is the burden of arguments used in published docu- 
ments issued by the opposition. 

The proposed lines of the new town robbed both Watertown 
and Waltham of considerable sections of territory. Consequently 
these towns, as well as citizens of Arlington residing in the terri- 
tory north of Lake street, opposed the project. 

The result was battles royal for five years, in succeeding 
sessions of the Massachusetts legislature, that became famous, 
owing to the wealth, political influence, and social standing of 
the contestants. The pamphlets printed in connection with this 
controversy would make a sizable volume if gathered in book 
form, and other costs were correspondingly heavy. The select- 
men of Arlington approved one bill contracted in this matter 
amounting to $1020.25. 

Persistency won finally, and March 18, 1859, the bill incorpo- 
rating Belmont became a law and citizens of Arlington parted 
with a regret, which time has only partially diminished, with a 
broad and beautiful section of the old town. 

But all of rancor passed away years ago, and on many occa- 
sions, notably during the Civil War, the communities have been 
drawn closely together and the kindliest relations are still main- 
tained through fraternal organizations, the churches, and where 
there is a community of interest, as is the case with the low lands 
bordering on Alewife Brook which both towns hope to see 
ultimately, perhaps speedily, changed in character. 

For several years prior to the introduction of general street 
lighting, Arlington had followed the plan of providing for the 
lighting and care at places where citizens were willing to pay 
for erecting the lamp posts, and as a consequence the central 
portion or business section of the town was fairly well lighted, 
"except moonlight nights," at public expense prior to 1857. 
That year a general contract was made with Arlington Gas Light 
Company, whose plant has broadened with the growth of the 
town. Several years ago electricity was substituted for gas and 



Past and Present 121 



now the cost of street lighting has become one of the four or 
five largest items in the annual tax levy. 

In 1860 appears the first record of attempt to secure sidewalks 
outside the immediate Center, Warren Rawson petitioning for 
a sidewalk on Broadway. The petition was laid on the table, 
but a few years later the town adopted a general plan which has 
resulted in building them on all streets. 

Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, a muster- 
ing-in rendezvous, known as "Camp Cameron," was established 
at North Cambridge. It embraced several acres, fronting on 
Massachusetts avenue where the North avenue car barns are now 
located and extending northward nearly to the line of Broadway 
in Somerville. Other and more conveniently located camps were 
opened in sections having better transportation facilities and this 
location was abandoned when these new camps were ready for 
use in 1862. The flagstaff was secured by a self-constituted 
committee and erected in the square at the junction of Pleasant 
street with ^Massachusetts avenue, where also was located the 
"town scales." 

At a town meeting held April 7, 1867, it was 

Voted, That the town accept the flagstaff standing on the 
corner of Main and Pleasant streets, and the flag donated by 
Benjamin Poland and others, and that the same shall be used 
on all proper occasions. 

Subsequently it was taken down and set up on Russell Park 
and still later an entirely new staff was erected there. The 
gilded ball surmounting the top-mast, while the staff was doing 
service at Camp Cameron, was secured by ex-Selectman James 
A. Bailey and it is now preserved among the war-time relics in 
G. A. R. Hall. 

The decade covered by this chapter still lives in the memories 
of the aged and those in middle life as a period of fear and dread, 
but out of which there came a promise for a glorious future for 
our country and the world in the final triumph of the Union cause 
which decade by decade they are seeing realized. Here would 
logically appear the story of Arlington's honorable part, sus- 



122 Town of Arlingtoyi 

tained in excess of law's demands, in the years from 1861 to 1865. 
It has seemed better, however, to incorporate this story with the 
other quick and hearty responses of other generations when 
liberty has been in danger, or the life or honor of the nation has 
been in peril. This record and all material details for a narrative 
will be found in the section devoted to Arlington's military 
record. 

In 1866 the town voted to accept the lot of land bounded by 
Mystic and Chestnut streets and west of Russell school building, 
donated by the late Hon. James Russell, as a public park. 

In 1862 President Lincoln issued a call for the special observ- 
ance of Washington's Birthday, Feb. 22, 1862. The selectmen 
called a public meeting, and the program of the exercises on that 
occasion is copied in the town records, as follows: 

PRAYER. Rev. Daniel R. Cady, D.D. 

SINGING, America. Chorus. 

WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL ADDRESS. Rev. William E. Gibbs. 

STAR SPANGLED BANNER. Chorus. 

ADDRESS. Hon. William E. Parmenter. 

CLOSING HYMN. Doxology. 

Washington J. Lane, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, presided, and 
read Lincoln's proclamation. It was intended that Rev. S. B. Swaim should 
read the Constitution, and Rev. Samuel A. Smith the "Bill of Rights," but 
want of time prevented. The music was under the direction of Mr. James 
F. Clark. The liall was crowded. 

A true record, 

ABEL R. PROCTOR 

Secretary. 



CHAPTER V 



1867 — 1877 



Population in 1865, 2,760. Population in 1870, 3,261. 

Population in 1875, 3,906. 

The town renamed, and celebration of event. — The "training field" sold. — 
Tornado of 1871. — Adopting town seal. — Arlington Water Works 
heir to Arlington Lake Water Company. — Water Works inaugurated in 
1872. — Bank Block erected. — Grading of Massachusetts avenue 
stopped by injunction. — Arlington favors a "Metropolitan District." — 
First newspaper enterprise. — Celebrating centennial of Battle of Lex- 
ington, and the aftermath. — Swan's Block built. — The "P. L. L." 
movement. — Reynolds's reform crusade and w^hat came of it. — Cam- 
bridge fails to secure a slice of Arlington territory. — Movement for a 
Metropolitan District. — Change in method of street building. 

THE record of events during this decade in the Hfe of the 
town properly opens with what transpired when the name 
of West Cambridge was dropped and old Menotomy was again 
rechristened, this time as Arlington. 

Dissatisfaction at being considered by the great bulk of people 
not familiar with the facts as merely a village of Cambridge, not 
a town, had for a considerable time existed and been often 
expressed by certain old residents. Then again the somewhat 
rapid increase in new comers of influence in town affairs at that 
time proved a strong factor. They had no interest in main- 
taining the name, and naturally had little sympathy with the 
utterance of Rev. Samuel Smith, who closed his historical address 
detailing events of April 19, 1775 (April 19, 1864), as follows: 

I hope the name of the town will never be changed. It 
would be like giving up our birthright. As the Second Precinct 
of Cambridge we hold an honorable place in history; who would 
alienate that inheritance? Other names may be more eupho- 
nious, but as soon should the man gi^'e up his surname, conse- 

123 



124 



Town of Arlington 



crated by good acts, and ij;lorified by the patriotism of pious and 
brave ancestors, as we give up that good old name of Cambridge, 
with which our village was baptized in blood on the nineteenth 
of April. 

Had ^Ir. Smith lived, the result of the move to change the 




VIEW OF ARLINGTON CENTER IN 1867 
Looking westward from steeple of the First Parish Church 



name might have l^een different, for he was a wise and powerful 
leader of men. But it was easy to show that it was as " teno- 
tomy," and not as West Cambridge, this town won fame at the 
hands of "pious and brave ancestors" (no record of revolu- 
tionary events speaks of this territory as the Second Precinct 
of Cambridge); the men favoring the change were influential, 
resourceful. Being in this as in all other things tremendously in 
earnest, the victory over opposition was signal. 

At the town meeting held April 1, 1S67, a committee was 
chosen to select from a number proposed by different parties a 
new name for the town. That committee consisted of Joseph S. 



Past and Present 



125 



Potter, William Stowe, George Hill, Warren Rawson, Henry 
Mott, Addison Gage, Albert Winn, Samuel Butterfield, Moses 
Hunt.* These men were prominent in local affairs at the time, 
but all are now dead, the last survivor being Hon. Joseph S. 
Potter, the prime mover in the scheme and the force in the legis- 




VIEW OF ARLINGTON CENTER IN 1867 
Looking eastward from steeple of First Parish Church 

lature which secured such prompt action in the enactment of the 
following bill: 

Chapter 146 

An Act to change the name of the Town of West Cambridge. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
•General Court assembled and by authority of the same as follows: — 

Section 1. The town of West Cambridge in the County of 
Middlesex shall take the name of Arlington. 

Section 2. This Act shall take effect from and after the 
thirtieth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. 
Approved April 13, 1867. 

* The committee engaged George Y. Wellington as secretary. He is 
living and has the old record book in his possession. 



126 



Town of Arlington 




Past and Present 127 

May 27, 1867, in executive session, the Selectmen of Arlington 
voted 

That Arlington Brass Band be given the free use of Town 
Hall, two evenings each week, to prepare for the coming cele- 
bration of change of name. 

Here we have the first official notice of an important event in 
the history of the town, — a grand and formal celebration of the 
change in name from West Cambridge to Arlington. The leg- 
islature of that year by the ''Act" already printed here, had 
granted the petition of citizens. On May Day the gratification 
of its citizens found expression in firing a salute of one hundred 
guns, ringing church bells, a general display of the national colors, 
a mass meeting in Town Hall in the evening. At this gathering 
addresses were made by prominent citizens, and a committee 
chosen to arrange for a "grand formal celebration of the event 
on the following Bunker Hill Day, June 17th." 

For nearly twenty-five years there has been in the possession 
of the writer a copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Neiospupcr of the 
date July 6, 1867, containing an illustrated report of the events 
connected with the celebration of this change in name, awaiting 
a fitting occasion for use. Feeling this to be preeminently the 
time, the entire report, with illustrations reproduced diminished in 
size to meet the demands of the book page, is here given. 

THE CELEBRATION IN ARLINGTON, .AIASS. 

The joint celebration of the Bunker Hill battle, and the change 
of the old town of West Cambridge to the new of Arlington, 
on June 17th, was as complete and successful as the extensive 
arrangements that had previously been made promised. The 
novelty of the celebration, the trades' procession, the children's 
entertainments, and the first-class regatta, added much to the 
pleasure of those who had a share in it. Very early in the morn- 
ing — without regard to the threatening clouds that hung over 
the new town, but happily partially broke away as day advanced 
— the townspeople began their preparations for the day's enjoy- 
ment, and put upon the town its holiday rig. From the distant 
sections of Arlington, and from Belmont, Cambridge, Lexington, 
Medford, Somerville, and, in fact, from all the towns within a 



128 



Town of Arlington 



circuit of a dozen miles, came crowds of people in carriages of 
every description and character, in wagons, horse and steam 
ears, and on foot, during the early hours of the forenoon, and 
by nine o'clock, the time appointed for the exercises of the cele- 
bration to begin, Arlington was crowded, and yet was in the best 
of spirits, and offered welcome and hospitality without stint to 
its guests. 

To participate in the jo3^s of the occasion, J. S. Potter, Esq., 




RECEPTION OF GOV. BULLOCK AND ESCORT AT TOWN LINE OF ARLINGTON, 

JUNE 17, 1867 



the chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, under their 
order, invited quite an array of distinguished gentlemen, includ- 
ing the Governors of Massachusetts and other New England 
States, executive officers, and two or three Members of Congress. 
A greater portion of these signified their intention of being present, 
and to meet them a small procession went to the Cambridge line 
soon after nine o'clock. This procession was headed by a caval- 
cade, and embraced the Selectmen of Arhngton and the Committee 
of Arrangements. 



Past and Present 129 



The invited guests came in barouches, and made quite a 
respectable procession of themselves. Among them were His 
Excellency the Governor of Massachusetts, with the members of 
his staff; Lieutenant-Governor Clafiin; Honorable Jacob Loud, 
Treasurer of the State; Honorable Messrs. Dana, Evans, Rice, 
Talbot, Brayton and Goodspeed, of the Executive Council; 
President Pond, of the Senate; Honorable Joseph White, of the 
Board of Education; Honorable Charles Sumner, Honorable 
Alexander H. Rice, Honorable George B. Loring, Ex-Governor 
Hawley, Henry Clay Trumbull of Connecticut; General Burrill and 
staff; General Gordon and Commodore Rogers, of the Charles- 
town Navy Yard; and a delegation from the artistic and editorial 
staff of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Their arrival was 
announced by a salute. 

After a little delay the procession of reception re-formed, and, 
with the Lancers and guests, marched back to town. The 
entrance to Arlington from the Cambridge line was made under 
a triumphal arch, which bore, upon the Cambridge side, the 
quotation: 

" Two centuries, with their snows, have bent 
The ancient guardians of the land 
And their broad branches have o'erspanned 
A nation that came and a race that went." 

and the words in the center, within a shield, "Arlington, 1867." 
Also, upon the Arlington side, simply, "West Cambridge, 
1807." 

At the point from which the procession of reception first started, 
the different sections that were to form the grand procession were 
met and admitted into line, and then the body, as the grand pro- 
cession took up the line of march, under the chief -marshalship of 
Addison Gage, Esq., over the route as laid down in the programme 
for the day. The procession first marched up the old Lexington 
road to the junction with Appleton street; then countermarched 
and returned to Pleasant street, through that street to Lake, 
around Arlington Lake — once Spy Pond — to Arlington avenue, 
and up the avenue to the tent on the Common, where it was 
broken up. 

On the line of march there was a most liberal display of flags 
and mottoes. The procession, moving up the Lexington road, 
passed a modest, old-fashioned, hospitable-looking country- 
house, before which was an evergreen-trimmed sign, announcing 
that "On the 19th of April, 1775, Jason Russell and eleven others 
were killed in this house by British troops." The house is now 



130 Town of Arlington 

occupied by Mr. Russell Teele. At the junction with Apple- 
ton street, where the procession countermarched, was another 
triumphal arch, upon the western side of which was this couplet, 
from Emerson's "Concord Bridge ": 

"Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

And on the other, "Menotomy — 1775." Coming back, upon 
the Town Hall building, was the inscription: "In front of this 
spot, on the morning of the 19th of April, 1775, a convoy of pro- 
visions and supplies was captured from the British troops — the 
first capture made in the war of the Revolution by the Americans." 

Along the route a number of private residences were exten- 
sively decorated with bunting, and flags hung across the street 
in many cases. The flagstaff in the square was also ornamented 
with a scroll, bearing the words, "Arlington, May 1, 1867." 

The dinner was served in a mammoth pavilion, erected on the 
spacious grounds of J. R. Bay ley, Esq., on Pleasant street. Plates 
were set for eight hundred persons by JMr. J. B. Smith, the Boston 
caterer, who proved himself equal to the exigencies of the occa- 
sion. The tent was elegantly adorned with flags, streamers, and 
evergreens. On two of the standards supporting it were placed 
shields bearing the arms of the United States and i\Iassachusetts. 
On two other standards were shields bearing the inscriptions: 
"Menotomy, 1776," and "West Cambridge, 1807." On a banner 
opposite the guests' table were the mailed hand and sword of the 
state arms, and the motto: "Massachusetts. Manus haec inimica 
tyrannis. Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem." Near by 
was a banner with this inscription: 

"New England. 
And as the ice that leaves our crystal mine 
Chills the fierce alcohol in the Creole's wine, 
So may the doctrines of our sober school 
Keep the hot theories of our neighbors cool." 

— Holmes. 

Over the guests' table was a shield bearing the inscription, 
"Arlington, 1867." 

At a quarter to three o'clock His Excellency, Governor Bullock, 
and other invited guests arrived. Accompanying the governor, 
in addition to the prominent guests already mentioned, were 
Brevet Major-General John G. Foster, ]\Iajor-General N. P. Banks, 
Ex-Adjutant-General Schouler, Brevet Brigadier-General Osborne, 



Past and Present 131 



R. H. Dana, Jr., Esq., and other gentlemen of military and 
civic distinction. 

At the banquet, speeches were made by the governor of 
Massachusetts, General Banks, Hon. Charles Sumner, R. H. 
Dana, Jr., and others, and then the company adjourned to a 
regatta upon the lake, and thus ended a day of festivities to cele- 
brate the new christening of the town of Arlington. 

The citizens well maintained their reputation for hospitality by 
keeping open houses and abundant supplies for the entertainment 
of citizens of other towns. ^lan}^ students of Harvard, glad of 
an opportunity to contribute toward the christening, warmly 
express their thanks to its citizens for the liberal reception at 
their hands; to Messrs. Harris, Hopkins, and Peck, of the regatta 
committee, for their full and thorough arrangements, and par- 
ticularly to Mr. Addison Gage, for the sumptuous and elegant 
manner in which they were entertained at his house. 

The ceremonies throughout the day were marked by good taste 
and decorum, and the whole affair was as enjoyable as it was 
unique. The local police were aided in the preservation of order 
by Sergeant Foster and a detachment of police from Boston, who 
returned to the city loaded with honors and bouquets. 



Selectmen petition the legislature for authority to sell "either 
by auction or at private sale, the plot of land known as the 
'training field,' reserving only a strip on the southeasterly line 
sufficient for a street." This street was subsequently named 
"Linwood." 

April 15, 1867, John T. Trowbridge "gives to the town a strip 
of land 16 feet wide along the northerly line of his homestead 
lot, provided the town accept Spring Valley as a town way and 
secure land for turning teams at the Spy Pond end of the lane." 

August 28, 1871, Arlington was for a second time visited by a 
tornado, less destructive than that of August, 1851, already 
described with considerable of detail, but a serious affair, espe- 
cially to two of the churches. The following is the story of that 
disaster as told in the columns of the issue of Woburn Journal, 
dated Sept. 2, 1871: 

The gale which prevailed Sunday night was quite severe. The 
wind was especially furious in Arlington. The windows of the 



132 



Town of Arlington 



residence of Judge William E. Parmenter, on Russell street, were 
blown in. The rear part of the house of Thomas J. Russell on 
Main street, was damaged by a large elm tree blown against it. 
Much damage was done on "High," Grove and Mill streets. 
Individual losses are not great, but the aggregate is large. The 
spire of the Orthodox Congregational Church on Pleasant street 
was blown down. It was about one hundred and thirty feet 
high. The gust was so sudden and severe that the spire was 




EFFECTS OF TORNADO OF AUGUST, 1871, ON THE ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCH 



turned end for end. The vane and upper part were shattered as 
they touched the ground, but the timbers were so strong above 
the bell deck that they did not break, and amid the wreck the 
bell was bottom side up twenty feet from the ground. The 
church stands back from the street and none of the neighboring 
dwellings were reached by the falling spire. 

The tower of the Unitarian Church at the corner of Main and 
Pleasant streets, was a beautiful structure one hundred and 
eighty feet high. It was blown over from level with the ridge- 
pole of the church. When it fell towards the northeast, the 



Past and Present 



133 



neighbors thought some build- 
ing had been demohshed by 
Hghtning. The town clock 
which was in the tower, was 
thrown down beneath the 
wreck. Both churches are 
not injured except in their 
towers. The spires will be at 
once rebuilt. The other two 
churches of the town were 
not within the range of the 
tornado. It was twenty years 
on Tuesday last, the 22d ult., 
since Arlington, then West 
Cauibridge, was visited by a 
destructive tornado which passed through the town about a 
hundred rods to the east of the path of that of Sunday 
evening;. 




RUINED TOWER OF FIRST PARISH CHURCH 
August, 187 1 



The foregoing is supplemented with the following from the 
columns of Arlington Advocate of January, 1897: 



[Correspondence.] 



Greenwich, Conn., Jan. 21, 1897. 



Editor Advocate : 



Your souvenir number recent!}^ came to hand and attracted 
special attention for the excellence of its composition and illus- 
trations. It represents quite a complete history of Arlington 
for twenty-five j^ears, and has been laid away among my val- 
uable pamphlets. 

I was particularly interested in your description of the town 
as you saw it in the summer of 1871, when your mission was to 
"spy out the land." JM}^ first knowledge of the town was 
obtained that same summer, and as your chronological events 
begin in 1872, I cannot refrain from alluding to the tornado of 
August 28, 1871, which will be recalled by many of your 
readers. 

Throughout the day a stiff breeze blew from the southwest, 
which considerably increased at sunset, when the heavens were 
covered with black, heavj'-looking clouds. At 10.50 the wind 
had increased to a terrible gale. Houses rocked upon their 
foundations and window-blinds and skylights were wrenched off 
and hurled into the streets. Immense elm trees were uprooted or 



134 



Town of Arlington 



their branches twisted off by the fury of the storm.* The dark- 
ness was impenetrable and the rain fell in torrents. The rat- 
tling of falling chimneys and the snapping of limbs from the 
trees could be heard in all directions. At precisely eleven, as the 
clock in the Unitarian Church steeple began to strike the hour, 
the storm doubled its fury. I had crawled to an open window 
and with my hands tight upon the casement, I listened to the 
wild clanging of the church bells. The rhythmical strokes of 
the clock ceased and gave place to an irregular, uncertain 
stroke that told me that the church spires were swaying in 
the tornado. Then came a lull as they hung in midair, followed 
by a terrific crash, and both spires lay a mass of rubbish in the 
street. 

It is a curious circumstance that Dr. Adams, of Boston, who 
preached in the Orthodox church the day before the cyclone, 
described in his sermon at considerable length a typhoon and its 

disastrous results. 

Frederick A. Hubbard. 



Prior to 1871 several efforts had been made by parties inter- 
esting themselves, to secure the adoption of a town seal, but 

without result. At the meet- 



f^^ 




TOWN SEAL 



garden farming, 
without repetition. 



ing of March 6, 1871, the 
selectmen and town clerk were 
constituted a committee to 
procure a town seal, and the 
• accompanying cut shows the 
result of their labors. 

Through the vista of the 
two immense elms which at 
that date marked the gateway 
of the town, is seen Bunker 
Hill IMonument and it is sur- 
mounted by a plow, symbol of 
Arlington's chief industry — 
The lettering on the seal is plainly discernible 



* One of these trees was the noble elm which for two centuries sheltered the Adams 
homestead. Its exact site is marked by the elm tree at the depot park east of Town Hall, 
procured and planted there by Messrs. Joseph S. Potter and J. Winslow Peirce immediately 
after the ruins of the old tree had been removed. — [Ed. 



Past and Present 135 

Arlington's second water company was started by wealthy 
residents along the line of Pleasant street, to supply their new 
and full plumbed dwellings with required water by an easier 
method than pumping the same into tanks, who secured the 
enactment of the following: 

Acts of 1855, Chapter 13. 

An Act to incorporate the Spy Pond Water Company. 

Section 1. John Schouler, Edward Chapman, Abel G. Peck, their asso- 
ciates and successors, are herebj^ made a corporation by tlie name of the Spy- 
Pond Water Company, in West Cambridge, for the purpose of furnishing 
the inhabitants of said town an abundant supply of soft water, by raising 
the water of Spy Pond by steam power into a reservoir and conducting the 
same by pipes to the residences of the inhabitants in said town and for 
this purpose they shall have all the powers and privileges, and be subject 
to all the duties and liabilities and restrictions set forth in the forty-fourth 
chapter of the Revised Statutes. 

Section 2. The capital stock of said corporation shall not exceed $50,000 
and the same may be invested and held in such real and personal estate as 
shall be necessary and convenient for carrying on the business of the said 
corporation; and no shares in the capital stock of the said company shall 
be issued for a less sum or amount to be actually paid in on each, than the 
par value of the shares which shall be first issued. 

Approved by Governor, Feb. 7, 1855. 

The plan was to pump water into a standpipe erected on 
the high land on the westerly side of Pleasant street, but the 
company acquired no land or other privileges under the act. 

In 1867 this company, by act of the legislature, changed its 
name to Arlington Lake Water Company, and the act authorized 
"completion of organization wherever the same may be now 
defective," etc. See Chapter 40, Acts 1867. 

Chapter 245, Acts of 1871, empowered this company to take 
waters of Sucker Brook and its tributaries, etc., and to sell 
its rights to the town of Arlington under specified conditions of 
Chapter 93, Acts of 1870. 

At a town meeting held Aug. 16, 1871, ninety-six to thirteen, 
citizens voted to accept the offer of Arlington Lake Water Com- 
pany to sell all rights, without any conditions annexed, for $388. 
The motion also included an appropriation of $120,000 to build a 
reservoir, lay water pipes, etc., and provided for the issue of 
water bonds. 



136 Tow7i of Arlington 

The sequel of these prehminary steps, extending from 1855 to 
1872, was the establishment of public water works in the latter 
year. The town records contain reports of numerous meetings 
prior to that of Aug. 16, 1871, when the vote to purchase rights 
of Arlington Lake Water Company was passed. They show by 
inference that the taking of the waters of "Sucker Brook" was 
vigorously opposed by some of the wealthier citizens, also that 
other sources of supply were suggested. 

The reservoir created by building a dam to retain the waters 
of the brook had a storage capacity of 77,000,000 gallons and the 
normal flow of the stream was 720 gallons per minute. A fatal 
mistake was made in not removing the soil at the bottom of the 
inclosed space before the gates were closed and the reservoir 
filled. When the water was let on it flowed into twelve miles of 
main pipe, the largest being twelve inches in diameter. 

During construction complications requiring legislative action 
occurred; soon after the system was inaugurated suits for dam- 
ages were instituted, so that in 1878 the sum total of water 
bonds issued amounted to $300,000. 

This great increase in cost over estimates presented by original 
promoters was less an occasion of dissatisfaction than the quality 
of the water furnished and a scarcity in the dry season when 
naturally the larger quantity was desired. Again, none of the 
elevated residential sections could be supplied, as this system 
relied on gravity for distribution. 

To meet the first objection, all sorts of devices of filtration 
and elimination were tried, with but temporary relief. 

To meet the demands of residents on high land, ^lay 28, 1894, 
the town voted to establish a high service plant and authorized 
the issue of bonds to the amount of $92,000 to build standpipe, 
furnish pumps, etc. The water to supply these pumps was 
obtained from driven wells in the territory opposite the railroad 
station at East Lexington. The standpipe was erected at the 
apex of Arlington Heights. 

In this enterprise the town was again unfortunate, the water 
developing an undesirable quantity of iron, and Nov. 2, 1898, the 
town voted to abandon its local water works and become a part 



Past and Present 137 



of the Metropolitan system. The apphcation was granted by 
the Commissioners. Jan. 31, 1899. 

In 1873 Arhngton Five Cent Savings Bank purchased the land 
and buildings on the corner of Pleasant street, and there erected 
the brick block which is the business place of the three banks — 
First National, Savings Bank, Arlington Cooperative. In 1874 
the building was ready for occupancy. Up to this time the 
center railroad station, then located east of Town Hall, had 
furnished its place of business, its officers sharing with the local 
coal dealer (J. Winslow Peirce, who was also station agent) the 
single room the depot afforded. Under these conditions it is not 
sti'ange that the depot became a social and political center, where 
the visitor was likely to meet citizens interested in town affairs 
at almost any time during the day and w^as sure to find a number 
present each evening. 

Bethel Lodge No. 12, I. O. O. F., leased the entire third story 
and fitted it for lodge uses, vacating Menotomy Hall which had 
been headquarters since being reinstated in 1866. More details 
regarding this lodge will be found in the section devoted to 
societies. 

In 1873 the selectmen commenced operations on a plan to 
widen, straighten and change the grade of Massachusetts avenue, 
laid out originally from Alewife Brook to Water street "six rods 
wide," but which had been encroached upon by abutters almost 
its entire length. No "grade" had ever been established and 
from Lake street to the center railroad crossing there were a suc- 
cession of knolls of considerable size which made surface draining 
impossible. 

The highest of tliese "humps" was in front of the Arlington 
House, from which the ground fell off nearly to the level of the 
cellar under Swan's Block and then rose abruptly to the grade of 
the steam railroad. The work at this point had progressed to 
the extent of lowering the grade from the junction at Broadway 
to Medford street, when an injunction from the Superior Court, 
procured by Nathan Robbins and others, stopped operations. 
Twent}" years later, and at an expense of thousands of dollars 
more than it would originally have cost, Massachusetts avenue 



138 Town of Arlington 

was relocated by the County Commissioners on practically the 
line proposed in 1873, and rebuilt on the grade then fixed. So 
ample vindication of the wisdom of the moving spirit in 1873 
became a matter of record. The corner of the fence in front of 
the Robbins mansion at that time was outside the line of the 
granite curb of the sidewalk at Robbins Library. 

March 2, 1874, by a vote of 240 to 2 Arlington voted in favor 
of a scheme then under discussion in the legislature to annex 
Arlington, Cambridge and Somerville to Boston to form a Metro- 
politan District. At the adjourned session of this annual meeting ' 
the selectmen were requested to petition the legislature in favor 
of the measure. This was Hon. Joseph S. Potter's plan for a 
"Greater Boston" which has been several times revived and is 
not yet given up by earnest advocates. 

In November, 1874, the proprietorship of Arlington Advocate 
(established in 1872 as a supplement to John L. Parker's Woburn 
Journal) passed into the hands of the people now controlling it, 
was enlarged to its present form, and has since then been a mirror 
of local affairs. In assuming control the editor said: 

In a town like ours there is no room for a party or class or 
society organ, but there is, we believe, a fine field for a newspaper 
conducted properly, and it is our purpose to make this a strictly 
local newspaper; one which will foster and aid any and all enter- 
prises looking to the welfare of the town and also to report impar- 
tially all public discussions of the questions which in the past 
have, and without doubt in the future will, divide equally honest 
men in regard to the administration of our town affairs. 

On these fines, with the broadening scope the growth of the 
town warrants, the Advocate is still continued and in its columns 
the weekly history of the town is mirrored. 

At the annual March meeting in 1875, under an article " to see 
what action the town will take in regard to celebrating the events 
of. April 19, 1775," a committee was chosen to investigate and 
report to the adjourned meeting. At this session the committee, 
through its chairman, made the following report: 

Your committee appointed at the annual town meeting of the 
1st inst., to take into consideration the subject matter of Articles 



Past and Present 139 



11 and 17 of the Warrant, in regard to the centennial celebration 
of the 19th of April, 1775, have attended to that duty and make 
the following report: 

Your committee are of the opinion that as the Battle of Con- 
cord and Lexington, so called, was a continuous one through the 
precincts of our own town, and in which this town did an impor- 
tant service, through its Minute-men and reserves, as on the 
highway in front of our own town house was made the first cap- 
ture of provisions and stores, and also prisoners, in the American 
Revolution, and as in this town more men were killed by the 
British soldiers than in either Lexington or Concord, and as here 
the first gun was fired that resulted in the independence of this 
country, we feel that it is incumbent upon the town, out of respect 
to those who one hundred years ago staked their all for freedom, 
to take some action in commemoration of deeds done upon this 
day; and to that end your committee recommend that the 19th 
of April next be celebrated by the inhabitants of the town as a 
general holiday; that business be suspended, the schools closed, 
the selectmen be instructed to have the bells rung for thirty 
minutes at sunrise, noon, and at sunset, that a salute of fifty 
guns be fired from some central location at the same time, that 
the flag be raised and that all places of historical note connected 
with the events of that day be properly designated. And 
w^e would recommend to the citizens generally to decorate their 
buildings. 

As the towns of Concord and Lexington have kindly invited 
the citizens of our town to join them in celebrating the centennial, 
we would recommend that the town clerk tender the thanks of 
the town of Arlington for this courtesy; and in case the citizens 
of this town desire to attend either of the celebrations at Concord 
or Lexington, or both of them, in an organized body, we recom- 
mend that a banner and a band of music be furnished for the 
organization at the expense of the town. 

We recommend that a committee of three be appointed by the 
town to represent this town at the celebration at Lexington, in 
accordance with the invitation sent from that town, as special 
guests. And as the town of Concord has invited the selectmen, 
town clerk, and treasurer, with the clergy of the town as its special 
guests on that occasion to represent the town at that place, we 
W'Ould recommend that this invitation be accepted. 

If the town adopts the recommendations of this committee, we 
w'ould recommend that the selectmen be instructed to petition 



140 



Town of Arlington 



the legislature for authority to raise a sum not exceeding [blank] 
dollars to pay for the same, to be included in the appropriations 
of the present year. 

John Schouler, 
George Y. Wellington, 
Charles H. Crane. 

Voted, That the report of the committee be accepted and 
adopted. 

Voted, That the amount to be asked for be two thousand dollars, 
and that the selectmen be instructed to petition the legislature 
for authority to raise said sum and to include it in the appropria- 
tion for the present year. 

Voted, That the committee appointed to make a report consti- 
tute a committee to take the whole matter of a celebration of 
the 19th of April next in charge, with the following additions to 
said committee: 



George E. Richardson 
James A. Bailey 
Warren Rawson 
Charles C. Sawyer 
Alfred Hobbs 
George AV. Lane 
George Hill 
Albert Winn 
George C. Russell 
Michael Waugh 
James Durgin 
J. Winslow Peirce 



Francis F. B. Kearn 
William Stowe 
Nathan Robbins 
Nathaniel C. Nash 
Joseph S. Potter 
James Gibson 
Ira O. Carter 
Matthew Rowe 
William H. Pattee 
Samuel D. Hicks 
John H. Hardy 
Samuel G. Damon 



Henry J. Wells 
John Osborn 
Cyrus Cutter 
Richard L. Hodgdon 
John Field 
Thomas R. Teel 
Frank M. Upham 
Benjamin Poland 
Horace H. Homer 
Martin O 'Grady 
Patrick J. Shean 



At the special town meeting held April 9, 1875, under the special 
act of the legislature, two thousand dollars was appropriated in 
due form, according to the wording of the vote already printed 
above. 

This action on the part of Arlington citizens well illustrates 
the unselfish and truly patriotic character of our people. There 
was in reality a surplus of historic events transpiring within the 
borders of Arlington on that eventful day, any one or several of 
which would be ample warrant for a local celebration, but they 
realized that Lexington Green was the birthplace of this Repub- 
lic, and its officials for themselves and the citizens on their behalf 
accepted the invitation of Lexington to contribute to the success 



Past and Present 141 

of the celebration there, the selectmen and others as special 
guests, and the citizens by arranging for an addition to the civic 
and military parade that was worthy the day and the occasion. 

The report of this committee is not a matter of record, but from 
the columns of Arlington Advocate ample data are obtainable how 
the money was spent. An appropriate arch spanned the entrance 
to the town at the historic old elms, bearing the inscription: 

"Two centuries with their snows have bent the ancient guard- 
ians of the land; and their broad branches have o'erspanned a 
nation that came and a race that went." 

The town was profusely decorated, at an expense of hundreds 
of dollars, to greet the thousands thronging the streets on that 
bright, clear, cold April day, and all places of historic interest 
were marked with conspicuous signs, many of them reproduced 
in permanent form on the stone monuments which were erected 
a few years later and placed where hundreds of thousands have 
read them in these intervening years. These were prepared by 
a special committee consisting of Dr. Richard L. Hodgdon, Hon. 
William E. Parmenter, Samuel G. Damon. 

In addition to these permanent monuments, there were large 
signs painted and fastened conspicuously on historic sites as 
follows : 

On the Whittemore House, nearly opjDOsite Whittemore street, 

" In this house lived Solomon Bowman, Lieutenant of the Minute-men 

April 19, 1775." 

Near the Center railroad station : 

" Site of the old Adams house, used as a hospital for the British wounded, 

April 19, 1775." 

On the reverse of the monument in front of First Parish Church: 

" On the 19th of April, 1775, more were killed on both sides, within our 
limits, than in any other town; at least twenty-two Americans, and probably 
more than twice that number of British, fell in this town." 

On the James ^I. Chase house next Universalist Church, in 
1775 occupied by Stephen Cutter, the banner read: 

" This iiouse was entered, plundered, and set on fire by the British, 
April 19, 1775." 



142 Town of Arlington 

The Heni'}' Locke house stands on the site, and the rear por- 
tion 01 the dwelling is a part of the Deacon Joseph Adams house. 
The legend on it said : 

" Site of Deacon Joseph Adams' house, from which the British took the 
church communion service, which was afterwards recovered by purchase 
and is now used by the Unitarian Society." 

The old Russell store corner of Water street had a sign reading: 
" Tliis store was phmdered by the British on their retreat." 

The Abel Locke house bore its appropriate story: 

" In this house the inmates were engaged in running bullets, when the 
British passed through on the night of April 18, 1775." 

The procession formed on ^lassachusetts avenue early in the 
morning, and marched in the following order: 

Chief Marshal. 
Benjamin Poland 

Aids to Chief. 
Warren W. Rawson S. Fred Hicks 

Augustus Osborne Arthur W. Peirce 

American Brass Band. 

Assistant Marshals. 
James Durgin Warren Rawson 

Cyrus H. Cutter Charles C. Sawyer 

James M. Chase Thomas Kenney 

Standard Bearer. 
George H. Hutchinson 

Chaplaiti. 
Rev, William F. Potter, of Wakefield 

Cavalcade, uniformed, numbering two hundred. 

Three barouches containing venerable citizens — Abel Peirce, Cyrus 
Cutter, James A. E. Bailey, Timothy Eaton, Capt. Edward Russell, Stephen 
Wright, Abbott Allen, James Peabody, Albert Winn. 

Representatives of Hiram Lodge F. and A. M. 

Representatives of Menotomy Royal Arch Chapter. 

Representatives of Bethel Lodge No. 12, I. O. O. F. 

Representatives of Temperance Society. 

Representatives of Menotomy Council, Soc. of Ind. 



Past and Present 143 



The procession proceeded to East Lexington, and there stood 
at attention while President Grant and his escort rode by, greet- 
ing the hero of Appomattox with hearty cheers. Resuming the 
march the hne Hterally pushed its way to the vicinity of Town 
Hall, and there came to a permanent halt. Finding it impossible 
to make progress as an organization, Chief Marshal Poland dis- 
missed the parade, and as rapidly as possible and by force and 
persuasion, most of those holding tickets for the banquet pro- 
vided, reached the tent. This was in charge of Mr. William H. 
Pattee, who had contracted to cater for the party, and it was 
pitched on the green in front of the railroad station in Lexington. 
It had been planned to make this a grand feature of the day, 
with speeches, music, and usual accompaniments of a banquet, 
but the speeches were doubtless frozen in the throats of those 
who had prepared themselves for the occasion, for the tempera- 
ture had fallen below freezing, and ticket holders hurried through 
the meal. But if the weather was cold and the food also, they 
got hot enough not very long afterwards in frantic endeavors to 
make their way homeward through a crowd of vehicles, organ- 
izations, sight-seers, peddlers, and fakirs, making the center of 
Lexington an almost solid mass of humanity, a hundred thousand 
people pouring into that town on that day. How Arlington 
officials and paraders reached home is a matter of personal record 
with each individual or small squad. It is presumable that 
many, like the writer and his group of guests, walked home, as 
the street was full of people. In closing his report of the day's 
doings the editor of the Advocate says: 

It was the intention of the celebration committee to have 
had photographs taken of the principal decorations, but the 
high winds of Tuesday [the celebration was on Monday] necessi- 
tated the removal of all loose display. Those not taken down 
carefull}^ by hand were removed without care by the fierce gale 
which prevailed during the day. 

There was a pleasant aftermath connected with this centennial 
celebration that should not be overlooked. J. B. Smith was the 
caterer for the town of Lexington, and a company of Arlington 



144 Town of Arlington 

young ladies volunteered to join with others in waiting on the 
tables. Owing to lack of railroad facilities on that day — worse 
than anything before and happily since — they were unable to 
reach Lexington. As a mark of appreciation of their courtesy, 
the next week i\Ir. Smith gave them a grand banquet, the late 
Samuel D. Hicks opening his spacious home on Pleasant street 
for the purpose and personally aiding in making this one of the 
most pleasing and enjoyable social events of the season. 

In 1876 the recent change wrought in the general appearance 
of Arlington Center was still further improved by the removal of 
the old Swan homestead and erecting on a portion of the lot the 
westerly half of Swan's Block by Henry and Harrison Swan, 
owners of the property. Two years later another and larger 
section was added, the upper part of this being finished off as a 
public hall. For some reason it was never popular, and within 
a short time was leased to the trustees of Robbins Library that 
here found most convenient quarters, and it was used for library 
purposes and also as a reading room until the library was removed 
to the new building of which Arlington is so justly proud. 

It is singular as well as remarkable that each and every political 
upheaval in the country, from colonial days until the very near 
present, has been foreshadowed or plainly indicated by the ver- 
dict rendered at the polls by voters of Arlington. Several of 
these drastic and dramatic overturns have been already alluded 
to. Another occurred in 1874, when the "P. L. L." (Personal 
Liberty League) combination of members of all parties to secure 
repeal of prohibition and substitute license, culminated in the 
election of William Gaston as governor and a legislature pledged 
to the repeal of the prohibitory law, passed many years previ- 
ously. The prohibitory law was promptly repealed by the 
incoming legislature and a license law enacted. Under the pro- 
visions of this law, the licensing authority reposed entirely with 
the selectmen of towns, and there remained for several years. 
Arlington's selectmen issued licenses to Charles L. Steinkrauss, 
Charles S. Jacobs, George Russell, M. A. Richardson & Co., 
Thomas E. Rowe, Mrs. Terrance Owens, ^Irs. Margaret Mahoney, 
Mrs. Eliza Nickola. Deferring to the vote of the town, no licenses 



Past and Present 145 



were issued in 1876, but the next year licenses were issued to the 
entire Ust of the previous year. 

What naturally and inevitably followed this change in the 
methods of dealing with the liquor traffic (it was practically a 
removal of all restraint) brought about a reactionary wave of 
public sentiment, aroused and led by men of whom Dr. Henry 
A. Reynolds was a representative. This enthusiastic reformer, 
with his motto "Dare to do Right," came to Arlington on invita- 
tion of Rev. Dr. Daniel R. Cady and Rev. Charles H. Spalding, 
and held meetings in Town Hall March 27 and 28, 1876, the 
result being the formation of Reynolds Red Ribbon Reform Club , 
with one hundred thirty-five members, and the organization of 
the Women's Christian Temperance Union two weeks later. The 
Reform Club went out of existence with the abandoning of its 
club rooms after the men it had reached had made for them- 
selves homes more attractive than it was possible to make the 
meeting place. It then seemed unwise to those sustaining it 
financially and giving to the work the moral support of their 
social standing, to continue the expense when so small measure 
of help was called for. 

This point in the history of Reynolds Red Ribbon Reform 
Club was not obtained for several years, however. It was only 
after a long period of education that present conditions were 
reached. 

The licensing power remained in the hands of the selectmen 
of towns for several years, with no appreciable gain in the pro- 
fessed object of regulation, lack of means and inclination among 
citizens making negative the improvement hoped for when a 
board was chosen that refused to grant licenses, in spite of 
enforcement committees and other means used. 

In 1881 "local option" was adopted by the legislature, this 
law giving each town and city the right to determine by its votes 
at the annual election of officers whether or no liquor licenses 
should be granted. The town's action under this law, at the 
meeting, March 7, 1881, was as follows: 

Resolved, That at the adjourned town meeting a vote be 
taken by ballot, yes or no, on the "Local Option Law," so 



146 Town of Arlington 



called; and that the selectmen be requested to give public notice 
of the same, and to provide ballots, and that the moderator 
be recjuested to appoint a committee of three to supervise the 
check list. 

March 17. Voted to jiroceed to ballot. Result: yes, 93; 
no, 31. 

Then followed a few years of "yes" one year and "no" the 
next, until, in 1888, Hon. John Q. A. Brackett, then lieutenant- 
governor of the state and recently become a citizen of Arlington, 
accepted an invitation from the Women's Christian Temperance 
Union to preside at the annual No-License meeting in Town 
Hall. A large and influential class in town had for all the 
3'ears since a license law was substituted for the prohibitory 
policy of former years, voted "yes" because they were neither 
prohibitionists nor total abstainers. To that class Governor 
Brackett devoted himself in his brief opening address, as 
follows: 

This gathering, and those of a Hke character which have preceded and 
which are to follow it, while having one general purpose in view, have also 
a special object at this time. They have reference to the action of the people 
at the coming town meeting upon the question of granting licenses for the 
sale of intoxicating liquors in Arlington the ensuing year The present local 
option law of the state imposes upon the people of each municipality the 
duty of annually deciding this matter for themselves. It is a ■plain, 'prac- 
tical, local issue, and one not excelled in importance by any other which the 
people, in discharge of their duties as citizens, are called on to decide. The 
issue is not whether a prohibitory law, applicable to all parts of the state 
alike, would be preferable to the existing local option law. That is a sub- 
ject for the representatives of the people in the legislature to act upon. It 
is not a question as to the necessity of total abstinence as a rule of individual 
conduct. That is something which every man must determine for hmiself. 
Neither of these questions is to be acted upon at our coming town meeting. 
The simple issue then and there to be decided is, whether the sale of liquors 
shall be authorized in Arlington. And upon this issue it seems to me that 
whatever our views may be upon the two questions alluded to, we can all 
stand together, and that waiving for the time being any differences of opinion 
we may have upon those other questions, we ought to stand together and 
decide that question in the negative. 

During the past year licenses have not been allowed in Arlington. Has 
anybody suffered from this ? Have any of the great interests of the town 
been injured by it ? It is a principle of law that the presumption is in favor 



Past and Present 147 



of existing things and the burden of proof is upon those who demand a 
change. It is incumbent upon those who advocate a change in the pohcy 
of the town upon this subject to prove its expediency. Have they done it, 
or can they do it ? 

Will the granting of licenses be a help to the town ? Will the introduction 
of liquor saloons be a local improvement ? Will they add to the attractions 
of Arlington ? Will they make us a more orderly community ? Will they 
lead us to feel more secure in our homes or when we walk the streets ? Will 
thej^ lighten the labors of our police force ? Will they improve our schools 
and have an elevating influence upon our children ? Will they enhance the 
products of our farms and gardens ? Will they increase the savings of the 
people, enable them to have larger deposits in the Savings Bank, to have 
more money for improving their dwellings and adding to their home comforts ? 
Will they make our social or moral atmosphere any purer or better ? Will 
they furnish inducements to people from other places to come to Arlington 
to reside ? Can any possible point be suggested as to which they will make 
life in Arlington any better, any happier, any safer, any more prosperous ? 
If not, THEN LET WELL ENOUGH ALONE. Let us keep things as 
they are. Let us not go to experimenting in a field so unpromising. Let 
us, at our town meeting, act upon this matter as upon all others, — guided 
solely by what our judgments and our consciences assure us will be most for 
the benefit of the town; and if we do this, there can be no doubt as to the 
result . 

This argument was not only so convincing to Arlington citizens 
that not since then has the town voted other than against 
license, but the speech was an important, perhaps a deciding, 
factor in securing the speaker's promotion to the office of gov- 
ernor. That address was scattered broadcast through the state 
influencing thousands of temperance men in the state to cast 
their votes for him who otherwise would have voted against 
him. 

These facts have taken the narrative a long step beyond the 
limit set in the matter of dates, but their contributing force on 
the growth of the town is too important to be omitted, and by 
the natural sequence the seed planting of 1876 and the fruitage 
of these later years should not be separated. A generation has 
been born and come to be voters that has never seen a licensed 
liquor saloon in Arlington. 

It was during this decade (1867-1877) that the town of Arling- 
ton adopted a new plan of street building and the selectmen 
strongly advocated a regrading and straightening of some of the 
principal streets. April 5, 1869, the town appropriated money 



148 Town of Aldington 

for a stone crusher and in 1870 added to this essential in building 
macadamized roads a twenty-ton stone roller. A new crusher 
bought in 1884 was abandoned for the up-to-date machine 
installed in 1903. In 1894 this system of street building was 
made complete by the addition of the steam roller. 



CHAPTER VI 



1877 — 1887 



Population in 1875, 3,906. Population in 1880, 4,100. 

Population in 1885, 4,673. 

Diminishing historical items. — Shrinkage in real estate valuation. — 
Cambridge seeks a piece of Arlington territory. — Pollution of Alewife 
Brook. — Charlestown street named Broadway. — Old elm cut down. — 
First Union Thanksgiving service. — Arlington Improvement Association. 
— Catholic Cemetery established. — Telephones introduced. — Apart- 
ment houses started. — Free text-books for schools. — Soldiers' monu- 
ment built and dedicated. — Change in leadership caused by death. 

IT would be natural to expect that with increasing population, 
enlarging business enterprises, more systematically kept, and 
always accessible records at the Town Hall, matter for this narra- 
tive would be found in correspondingly increasing quantity as 
the period covering the closing decades is reached. The reverse 
of this, however, is true and for a sufficient reason. 

Each decade considered to this point has added some impor- 
tant equipment or improvement that is permanent. In this 
respect the town is like the individual householder — new things 
required decrease in number. The story of increased facilities 
of travel, the introduction of water, disposal of sewage, and other 
large town enterprises has already been told. Providing for 
maintenance and natural increase in scope is now all these demand 
at town meetings and are, therefore, a mere matter of detail. 
Naturally there is little to add in way of description after the 
story of opening a building section has been told, though the few 
houses then standing may have been increased by the score or 
the hundred. 

A further curtailment of matter available comes because of the 
arrangement which assigns churches, schools, library, fire depart- 

149 



150 Town of Arlington 

ment, fraternal societies, etc., to sections where they are dealt 
with in a fullness of detail not otherwise possible, and in recent 
years these departments and the town finances have been the 
principal matters presented at town meetings. The result is that 
the writer finds a restricted field of research as the closing third 
of the town's century of corporate life is entered upon. 

The shrinkage in real estate valuation in consequence of the 
years of depression following the panic of 1873, had a striking 
illustration in the figures presented by the assessors in 1877, 
showing as they did a loss in that year of $230,909 as compared 
with 1876, although several new dwellings had been erected. 

In 1878 the city of Cambridge sought authority to annex to 
that city an easterly corner of Arlington. Nov. 18, 1879, the 
Board of Selectmen was authorized to employ counsel to assist 
in resisting this action on the part of Cambridge. In this effort 
they were successful. The incident is mentioned because it has 
connection with the pollution of Alewife Brook. 

At a special town meeting held Nov. 18, 1879, at which the 
only business proposed in the warrant Avas "To see what action 
the town will take relative to the increasing pollution of Alewife 
Brook by the city of Cambridge," it was 

Voted — That the selectmen be and hereby are authorized and 
requested to take immediate and active measures to pre\'ent the 
further pollution of Alewife Brook by the sewage of the city of 
Cambridge; and said Board are authorized to employ counsel 
and to unite with the town of Medford in any legitimate course 
looking to the abolition of this threatening nuisance and the 
preservation of the public health. 

This vote was reenforced at a meeting held Dec. 30, 1880, when 
Messrs. William G. Peck, Richard L. Hodgdon, Henry L. Law- 
rence, were chosen a committee to secure legislation to protect 
the public health, by stopping emptying sewage into Alewife 
Brook and also Mystic River. In a sense the above is a sequel to 
a story, rather than a story itself. 

In 1874 the Cambridge authorities were able to convince the 
selectmen of Arlington that the emptying of sewage into Alewife 
Brook could be controlled by tide gates put in near the line of 



Past and Present 151 



Broadway, and the legislature of that year (1874) passed an 
act authorizing the building of the gates. On the plea that it 
was necessary to protect Fresh Pond water from contamination 
by salt water, these gates were renewed in 1880, but under press- 
ure of the action taken by Arlington, the gates were soon trussed 
open. The damage to Arlington was permanent, however, and 
will not be removed until the broad scheme now under consid- 
eration by the towns and cities menaced by this malaria breed- 
ing place is an accomplished fact. The removal of the gate house 
and its foundation when Broadway was reconstructed in 1900, 
brought all the relief possible at present. Cambridge surface 
drains for North Cambridge, however, still have an outlet into 
Alewife Brook, and in times of heavy rainfall send a lot of unde- 
sirable matter into the brook. 

March 4, 1878, Charlestown street as it had been called for 
many years (it was built in 1793 to induce travel to Boston over 
the old Warren Bridge in Charlestown) was_ renamed Broadway. 
In July of that year the long-pending suits of the mill owners 
growing out of the taking of the waters of Sucker Brook and its 
sources, were settled by compromise, and bonds issued to pa}' 
the bill. In November of this year, because it had become a 
menace to travel, the gigantic elm on the south side of Massa- 
chusetts avenue at Arlington "gateway," was cut down. A 
picture of that tree as it appeared in 1867 is given in connection 
with the report of the celebration of the change of name from 
West Cambridge to Arlington in that year, on page 128. 

In 1880 the first Union Thanksgiving Service by all the Protes- 
tant churches was held in the Universalist Church, growing into 
a custom which is still maintained, though the time has been 
changed to the evening preceding instead of the day named by 
President and Governor. It was a natural outcome of the draw- 
ing together of the pastors of the several churches in the tem- 
perance crusade then in active operation, and is entitled to be 
considered one of its many good fruits. 

It was at the annual March meeting of 1880 that Arlington 
women voters first participated in the election of members of 
the School Committee. 



152 Town of Arlington 

In 1883 the first of many spasmodic efforts to maintain here a 
town or village improvement society was made. The objects 
aimed at as stated in the "preamble" are worth preserving. 
They were as follows : 

The object of this Association is to awaken and encourage in 
the community a sentiment and a spirit which will act for the 
common interest; to create or stimulate in the individual a regard 
for the elevation and improvement of the community, thereby 
securing better hygienic conditions in our houses and surroundings ; 
an improvement of our streets, sidewalks, and public grounds, a 
protection of natural scenery, and the building up and beautifying 
of the whole town, and so enhancing the value of its property, 
and rendering it a still more inviting place of residence. 

May 20, 1883, the first "Citizens' Law and Order League" was 
formed, to be succeeded later by that mysterious "Committee of 
Fifteen" that became the dread of the illegal liquor traffic, and 
resulted in a reorganization of the police department under 
Eugene Mead as chief of police. 

March 2, 1883, the town made its first appropriation to meet 
the expense of telephones. Today almost every office-room in 
Town Hall has its instrument, all the fire-engine houses have the 
same convenience, as do also the school buildings. 

July 19, 1883, the selectmen ordered the placing of gates at 
the Center railroad crossing and that flag-men be stationed at 
other grade crossings in town. The installing of gates proved a 
difficult problem, but after several changes were made the present 
effective plan was evolved. Soon after gates were placed at all 
grade crossings. 

Many will recall the strong opposition encountered by people 
who had bargained for the Dickinson farm bordering on Alewife 
Brook on the south side of Broadway, and who proposed to lay 
it out as a cemetery. After several defeats the projectors of the 
scheme persuaded the citizens to abandon opposition, and on 
August 4, 1884, the transfer was sanctioned. This in brief is 
the history of St. Paul's Catholic Cemetery. 

Tn 1884 Arlington caught the roller-skating epidemic, and a 
great rink was erected on the Swan property in rear of Swan's 



Past and Present 153 



Block. It was not a signal success financially from the outset, 
and the projectors were soon glad to turn over the lease and 
abandon the property to the Swan brothers. The opening of 
Swan Place as a residential section came about in this way. The 
.Alessrs. Henry and Harrison Swan cut the rink into sections and 
reconstructed the same into tenements. Other people bought 
lots there, a new street was cut through to Pleasant street, and 
the territory is now well covered with attractive dwellings. 

In May, 1885, Hon. John H. Hardy, who had served the town 
in various capacities through several years, particularly on the 
School Board, and had been a trial justice under the old regime 
of treating minor court cases, was appointed a judge of the muni- 
cipal court for Suffolk County. Later he was advanced to the 
Superior Court, of w^hich bench he is still a member. 

In the winter of 1886 (Feb. 11), an illustration of what Arling- 
ton's mill stream could do when on a rampage was illustrated. 
The retaining Avail on the margin of the small pond above Arling- 
ton Heights station was washed away by high water, and down 
through the valley poured the flood, which fortunately found in 
spaces below broadening levels over which the water spread 
thinly, preventing any other serious damage below the wrecked 
dam. 

In April, 1887, Mr. George D. Moore bought the Caldwell 
estate on ^lassachusetts avenue, on which he built "The Flor- 
ence," and other apartment houses, he being the first to erect 
that class of dwellings in Arlington. Later his example was 
followed, and there are now many in different sections of the 
town which, like this, are an ornament. In 1906 Mr. Moore built 
a stately eight-tenement structure of brick on Pleasant street. 

In August of this year "Traders' Day" was inaugurated, but 
it has never secured here among business men the recognition 
which in other places has made it a general holiday for the store- 
keepers and clerks. 

This same month the new station of the Boston and Maine Rail- 
road at the Center was used for the first time. It stands on fully 
twenty feet of made land, the ground originally falling off on a 
steep angle from the avenue to the level of Peirce cl^ Winn Co.'s 



154 



Town of Arlington 



coal yard. The foundation of the depot, built of heavy granite 
blocks, rests on this lower strata. The old depot was moved to 
Brattle street and finished off to serve as residence of the station 
agent, as well as for depot purposes. 

At a town meeting held Oct. 3, 1884, the town appropriated 
two thousand dollars to supply free text-books for the public 
schools. 

In 1886 a telephone system of police calls was installed at the 
police station. 

The closing year of this decade witnessed an important event. 




MONUMENT TO MEMORY OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF THE CIVIL WAR 



the dedication of the monument at the junction of Broadway and 
Massachusetts avenue to the memory of the soldiers and sailors 
killed in the war for the defense of the Union, 1861-65. 

The movement dates back to the war period. In 1865 the 
Ladies' Aid Society turned over to the town five hundred dollars 
to be used towards the erection of a monument. This sum was 
placed in the hands of a committee of which the late Samuel G. 
Damon was chairman. In 1869 the town made an appropriation 



Past and Present 155 

of four thousand dollars to build a suitable monument, but diffi- 
culties in selecting a site developing, this sum reverted to the 
town treasury. 

Up to 1885 that committee, through its chairman, had annually 
reported as follows: "The committee on monument would report 
progress and ask for further time." In the local pajjer the report 
was dealt with in a way to arouse the attention of young men 
of whom ^Ir. William p]. Wood proved a good representative, 
the result being a concerted effort (after the town had refused to 
reappropriate four thousand dollars) to raise funds sufficient to 
secure land and erect thereon a suitable monument. 

The response of citizens generally was both prompt and hearty,. 
and the monument as it now stands being completed at a cost of 
over thirteen thousand dollars, it was dedicated with interesting 
ceremonies .June 17, 1887. 

This celebration was hardly less extensive and elaborate than 
that of April 19, 1875. The ^lozart Regiment Association, made 
up of the survivors of the Fortieth New York in which Arlington 
had a company, was a conspicuous figure in the parade; Posts 36 
of Arlington; 30, 56, 57, 186 of Camljridge; 119, Lexington; 18U, 
Concord; 66, Medford; 29, Waltham; 62, Newton; 81, Watertown, 
mustered 582 comrades; Somerville Light Infantry acted as escort; 
guests in carriages and mounted aids to the chief marshal made 
an imposing parade. 

The formal exercises were held on a raised covered platform 
in front of the monument and were of unusual interest. ^Ir. 
Damon, as chairman of the committee, turned the monument 
over to the town, James A. Bailey, a comrade of Post 36 and 
chairman of the Board of Selectmen, receiving the same, and 
introducing Hon. William E. Parmenter as president of the day. 

His inspiring address was followed with a poem from ^Jr. John 
T. Trowbridge, and then came the oration b}' Ex-Go v. John Q. 
A. Brackett. These addresses and the poem were published in 
Arlington Advocate of June 17, 1887, on file at Robbins Library. 
The main facts utilized by the speakers will be found in the 
section of this work devoted to Military Histor}-. 

The day closed with a great banquet in a tent erected where 



I 

156 Town of Arlington 

"The Florence" apartment house now stands on Massachusetts 
avenue. 

This decade is mainly notable for the change in leadership in 
town affairs wrought by the hand of death, the list including 
Deacon John Field (whose subtile plans were so signally successful 
in the hands of those to whom he intrusted their execution), 
the venerable Abbott Allen, Captain Reuben Hopkins, Rev. 
Daniel R. Cady, D.D., Josiah Crosby ("next to Judge Parmenter 
the best friend of Arlington schools "), George C. Russell, Davies 
Dodge (the veteran pharmacist), Benjamin Poland, Thomas 
J. Russell, Abner P. Wyman, J. Winslow Peirce, Hon. John 
Schouler, Thomas Ramsdell, Ira 0. Carter. 



CHAPTER VII 



1887 — 1897 



Population in 1885, 4,673. Population in 1890, 5,629. 

Population in 1895, 6,515. 

Arlington Cooperative Bank. — Fire alarm system. — Schools supplied with 
flags. — Australian ballot introduced. — Town pump abandoned. — 
First National Bank chartered. — Building Finance Block. — ■ Patriots' 
Day inaugurated. — Board of Health chosen for first time. — Elec- 
tricity in place of gas. — Changing grade of Massachusetts avenue. — • 
Arlington has a state senator. — • Two new brick blocks. — Main street 
renamed Massachusetts avenue. — A new postmaster. — "Advocate's" 
quarter-centennial. — Sherman Block built. — First electric car to 
Arlington. — Historical Society organized. — List of prominent people 
deceased. 

IN season to secure the entry of his name on the voting list 
of November, 1887, Hon. J. Q. A. Bracket!, then fiHing the 
office of lieutenant-governor of the state, applied to the Regis- 
trars of Voters and became a citizen of the town. Two years 
later, as a citizen of Arlington, but the candidate of the Republican 
party, he was promoted to the office of governor. On the even- 
ing of Nov. 11, 1889, Governor-elect and ^Irs. Brackett were 
tendered a public reception in Town Hall. It was a thoroughly 
unpartisan demonstration, although the "Brackett Club" of 
which Mr. Warren W. Rawson was president, took the lead. 
Representative-elect William H. H. Tuttle presided at the formal 
exercises concluding the reception, and the speakers were Hon. 
W. H. Haile, Hon. Frederick T. Greenhalge, Hon. George A. 
Marden and others of less prominence in state politics. A short 
poem by Mr. J. Howell Crosby, a salute on Russell Park, and a 
display of fireworks were features of the pleasant affair. 

An event of note in this decade was the incorporation of 
Arlington Cooperative Bank in November, 1889. In this home- 

157 



158 



Town of Arlington 



making enterprise, Hon. J. Q. A. Brackett, then filling the office 
of lieutenant-governor, was deeply interested, and Mr. R. Walter 
Hilliard, who had conceived the idea that Arlington was the 
place and then the time to establish such an institution, found in 
him an able and willing assistant. The first meeting held to 
consider the matter resulted in a sufficient stock subscription to 
secure incorporation. 

Starting in a humble way, with most of the officials serving 
without pay, it has gone on until today it is one of the strong 
financial factors in the town's life, having been the means by 
which scores of homes have been secured, and having now 4998 
shares valued at $283,146.36. 

The introduction of the Game well Fire Alarm System on Nov. 
11, 1889, requires only this mention. Details are to be found in 
the special section devoted to the fire department. 

In 1890 the old card mill of William Whittemore & Co., which 

until then had stood on the old site, was sold at auction and 

removed to ^lystic street by its purchaser, Mr. Warren A. Peirce. 

A '' revival in patriotism," started by the G. A. R. a short 

time before, led to supplying 
the public schools with flags, 
generous citizens and clubs 
furnishing required funds. 

This year Postmaster 
Frederick E. Fowle intro- 
duced the modern lock boxes 
to his equipment of the post 
office. 

In 1891, at the annual March 

meeting, the town accepted 

the act of the legislature pro- 

\'iding for what is known as 

the Australian ballot system of 

voting, which is still in vogue. 

In May of this year the old 

"town pump" was removed, the well having been condemned 

by the Board of Health, and the making of the park east of 




TOWN PUMP 



Past and Present 159 



Town Hall into its present shape was begun. This old town 
pump had served the center of the town since the year 1853, 
when the well was bricked up and cemented to above the street 
level, a slate-stone cap provided, and a new pump put in. The 
position of the watering trough illustrates how recent have been 
the changes in the lines of Massachusetts avenue which would 
cut it off from use in watering horses, a purpose for which a 
new stone trough w^as put there in 1S74. In place of the pump 
a drinking fountain, with a tank under ground to contain ice, 
was set up in front of Town Hall. 

When in 1842 Arlington gained a large strip of territory, formerly 
a part of Charlestown, there was added to her taxable property, 
the old "Tide-mill" on the south bank of Mystic River. It was 
used for manufacturing purposes at that time and for many years , 
and is understood to have been the scene of incidents cleverly 
told by ^Ir. John T. Trowbridge in his one of many thrilling 
stories, entitled " Tinkham Brothers' Tide-mill." It was an 
interesting old relic of other days. By way of celebrating July 
4, 1891, it is presumed, the building was set on fire and entirely 
destroyed. 

In the fall of 1891 William D. Higgins came to Arlington 
and busied himself in interesting those he was able to reach in 
the project of organizing a national bank. To such good pur- 
pose did he employ his talents, that on Dec. 11, 1891, "The First 
National Bank of Arlington" was organized with a capital of 
$50,000 and on January 4, 1892, the bank was opened for business 
in rooms on the ground floor of Savings Bank Building, corner 
of Massachusetts avenue and Pleasant street. E. Nelson Blake, 
who had recently come to his native town after a successful 
career in Chicago, accepted the presidency, which he still holds. 
Mr. Higgins was the first cashier and continued in that office 
until 1903, when John A. Easton took his place. 

For twenty years after Bank Building and Swan's Block were 
erected, slight changes were made in the real estate holdings on 
the avenue. These are both on the south side of the main 
thoroughfare. 

In 1893 a company of young men organized as a Finance Club, 



160 Town of Arlington 

used their capital and earnings in the purchase of the old Squire 
Russell estate, then the property of Mrs. George C. Whittemore, 
and erected what is known as "Finance Block," later adding the 
row of tenement houses in the rear of this ])roperty, the dwell- 
ings fronting on Russell Park. 

The legislature of 1894 abolished the old-time Fast Day and 
in place of it named the 19th of April as "Patriots' Day." 
Under the auspices of a new "Arlington Improvement Associa- 
tion/' which had Ex-Governor Brackett for its president, this 
day was quite elaborately celebrated in Arlington, as it has been 
spasmodically since. 

At a town meeting held in May of this (1894) year, the town 
voted to change the name of the main street to Massachusetts 
avenue to conform to a general change made by Boston, Cam- 
bridge, Arlington, Lexington, and Concord, this being the route 
of the British troops on the 19th of April, 1775. 

Arlington Board of Health came into existence by vote of 
the meeting held March 15, 1894, the selectmen being designated 
to serve in this capacity. The unwisdom of this course develop- 
ing from the situation, other officers have since filled the impor- 
tant place in guarding the town's interests. The gathering of swill 
and garbage, oversight of plumbing, etc., brings to the Board 
duties and responsibilities hardly thought of when the depart- 
ment was created. The first appropriation to meet the cost of 
gathering garbage was made Sept. 29, 1892. 

In 1895 electric lighting was substituted for gas on all public 
thoroughfares. 

April 1, 1895, Frederick E. Fowle, who had served the town 
as postmaster since his appointment by President Abraham 
Lincoln soon after his inauguration, surrendered the office to 
Alfred D. Hoitt, who had been given the office by President 
Cleveland. 

In 1896 the changing of the grade of Massachusetts avenue 
and streets entering it was coupled with laying a double track to 
Arlington Heights by the Boston Elevated Railroad Company. 
This and a reduction of the fare to Boston to five cents, were 
highly important gains. 



Past and Present 



161 



At the state election in November, Hon. James A. Bailey, Jr., 
was chosen to represent the district of which Arlington was then 
a part, in the state Senate, an honor the town had not enjoyed 
since 1870, when Hon. Joseph S. Potter filled the office. 

During this year Sherburne Block was completed, Studio Build- 
ing was started, and Fowle's Block was built. In the summer 
Town Hall was thoroughly repaired and redecorated, and at the 
same time extensive altera- 
















tions were made in the rooms 
used by the several depart- 
ments on the floors below. 

In the summer of 1895 the 
town scales was removed from 
the Center to Mystic street, 
and the fine elm tree that for 
so many years had sheltered 
the same was inclosed with 
the ornamental iron fence still 
standing. 

On January 1st, 1897, the 
Arlington Advocate completed 
twenty-five years of newspaper 
life and there was a public 
recognition of the event in the 
form of a banquet tendered 

the proprietors and editors in Town Hall. Governor Brackett 
presided and the provision for two hundred and fifty guests 
was hardly sufficient. The Boston Globe said it was "a brilliant 
gathering"; that the "decorations were on a magnificent scale." 
The tender came to the editors as a surprise and as guests only 
they had parts in the affair. 

In ^larch of this year the post office, which had been located 
in Town Hall since 1852, was removed to the new Sherburne 
Block erected on the site of the George C. Russell house, adjoining 
Town Hall. 

July 4, 1897, the first electric car was run on the new road 
connecting Arlington and Winchester. 



ADVOCATE SOUVENIR 



162 



Town of Arlington 



The fall term of the kindergarten of the IMisses Wellington was 
opened in a new building on their father's estate on Maple street. 

Dec. 7, 1897, Arlington Historical Society was organized with 
Edward S. Fessenden as president and Miss Nellie W. Hodgdon 
as secretary. It at once entered ujjon a successful career and is 
now the custodian not only of a valuable collection of papers 
pertaining to the town's history, but many relics which have a 
safe and convenient storage place in Robbins Library, which is 




VIEW OF ARLINGTON CENTER IN 1897 
Looking eastward from steeple of First Parish Church 

also the depository of records, papers, and official documents. 
April 6, 1898, the society procured an act of incorporation. 

Deaths during this period of men prominent in local affairs 
were Albert Winn, president of the Savings Bank, Nathan Rob- 
bins, president of Faneuil Hall Bank and the "dean" of Faneuil 
Hall Market, his brother Amos in New York (the last of a notable 
family of brothers), in 1888; Andrew F. Allen, Deacon Henry 
Mott (long time in public service as selectman, assessor, water 
commissioner), 1889; Dr. William A. Winn (chairman of the 
School Committee); Rev. F. A. Hedge, D.D. (the first Unitarian 



Past and Present 



163 



minister in Arlington), 1890; J. Brooks Russell (the prolific source 
of historic facts used in this volume), 1891; Deacon Daniel F. 
Jones, Jonas C. Nickerson (trusted confidential clerk of Nathan 
Robbins), Charles O. Gage, James A. E. Bailey (of the old 
Welch & Griffiths firm of saw makers), Thomas P. Peirce (associ- 
ated for years with Deacon IMott as assessor), William Stowe, 
Sylvester Stickney, 1892; Dr. Richard L. Hodgdon. John D. 
Freeman, Warren Rawson (selectman and water commissioner). 




VIEW OF ARLINGTON CENTER IN 1897 
Looking westward from steeple of First Parish Church 

1893; Elbridge Farmer (his gift of fifty thousand dollars endows 
Robbins Library), James Durgin (a controlling force in Arlington 
for many years), Jeremiah Prescott (formerly superintendent of 
Fitchburg Railroad), 1894; Dr. Jonas C. Harris, Deacon John C. 
Hobbs, Apollos J. Tillson, Henry Swan (many years a member 
of the School Committee), 1895; George D. Tufts, Cyrus Wood, 
Samuel C. Buckman, Samuel G. Damon, 1896. 



CHAPTER VIII 



1897—1907 



Population in 1895, 6,515. Population in 1900, 8,603. 

Population in 1905, 9,668. 

Town buys Pattee and i Robbins estate for a new Town Hall site. — Com- 
mittee of Twenty-one chosen. — Abolishing grade crossings. — Rebuild- 
ing Broadway. — Stephen Symmes leaves liis entire estate to found a 
hospital. — Town Hall fire discloses a serious defalcation. — Change in 
town's financial officers in consequence. — Votes to choose selectmen 
annually. — Old Menotomy Hall. 

THE Board of Survey, having the initiative in all matters of 
street building, the selectmen being named to constitute 
the board, was created by vote at town meeting held Nov. 8, 1897. 

At meetings of Arlington Improvement Association (this reor- 
ganized body with Governor Brackett at the head) held Jan. 27 
and Feb. 28, 1898, the proposal that had been discussed else- 
where, that the town buy the well-known Pattee estate as a site 
for a new^ municipal building, was discussed at length, and it was 
finally "Voted as the sense of this meeting that the proposed 
site be purchased." 

At a meeting of the legal voters, held April 4, it was voted to 
instruct the selectmen to close the bargain, and provided for 
raising the money to purchase the property. 

Nov. 8, 1897, the town adopted the plan, still in active opera- 
tion, of referring to a "Committee of Twenty-one," as it is called, 
all matters calling for a money appropriation, whose duty is to 
investigate carefully and report to the town its findings and 
recommendations. At the outset this committee included town 
officers, but as now constituted no one holding a public office 
can be a meml)er of this committee. 

164 



Past and Present 



165 



Feb. 10, 1897, the first real step towards ajjolishing grade cross- 
ings in Arlington took the form of a petition to the Supreme 
Court, b}' the selectmen, asking for the abolishing the crossings of 
the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks at Grove, Brattle, Forest, 
and Bow streets, also Park avenue. It required much patience 
and time to accomplish this, as well as cost, but "when the job 
was done it was well done," as any will see who inspect the work^ 




TOWN HALL SITE CLEARED OF BUILDINGS 



the adjustment of grades and changes in direction in some 
localities. 

In ]\Iarch of this year the police department took possession 
of the room formerly in use by the post-office business, and in 
May Arlington Advocate moved into Fowle's Block. 

May 1, 1S97, free delivery of letters, etc., was inaugurated in 
Arlington. 

At the annual town meeting of 1899, appropriation was made 
for improving the two triangular sections of vacant land caused 
by junction of streets with [Medford street. Under supervision 
of the park commissioners, these plots and also the "depot 
park," as it is generally named, were placed in their present 



166 Town of Arlington 



condition by the use of granite curbing. At this time the care 
of the grounds about the high-water service standpipe at the 
Heights was transferred to the park commissioners. 

Water was turned on from the jMetropoHtan system into 
Arhngton water pipes, June 30, 1899. In March of this year 
the office of tree warden was recognized by the election of Reuben 
W. LeBaron to fill that office. 

The legislature of this year gaxe the town authority to make 
appropriations for the maintenance of lands originally taken in 
connection with the water supply, particularly the old reservoir, 
or to sell the same if not needed in connection with the town's 
water supply. 

In the summer and fall of 1900 the highway department 
devoted the great share of its energies to the reconstruction of 
Broadway. In pressing his claim that the street ought to be 
rebuilt, the late Warren Rawson said in town meeting, "the 
road is so uneven it makes me seasick to ride over it." Of course 
it was an extravagance, but when Avork was begun on this thor- 
oughfare it was less like what a public highway should be than 
any other accepted street in town. 

Making a satisfactory arrangement with the city of Somer- 
ville, the old ford at Alewife Brook was filled to the grade of a 
new plan of the street, the culvert widened and raised two and 
one-half feet, and a heavy retaining wall built. At the same 
time the remains of the old brick building and tide gates were 
removed, giving this stream its first uninterrupted flow since 
1875. 

Filling in many places and cutting in a few to make the grade 
easy and uniform, a road sixty-four feet wide was built, the 
Boston Elevated Railroad Company following with double-track 
laying as fast as the roadbed was ready. It was carried out 
under personal supervision of Superintendent S. E. Kimball and 
William N. Winn, later a member of the Board of Public Works, 
on plans of Engineer Robert W. Pond, and is today a fine piece 
of roadbed. 

On Monday, March 11, 1901, Stephen Symmes, one of the 
older and most highly respected citizens of Arlington — though 



Past and Present 167 



it was by the annexation of 1842 that he became such — passed 
away in his 85th year. When his will came to be probated it 
was discovered that his entire estate, including the farm on Old 
Mystic street and his personal property also, had been left to 
"George Y. Wellington, William N. Winn, Charles A. Dennett, 
Henry Hornblower, William H. H. Tuttle, and Omar W. Whitte- 
more, all of said Arlington, trustees, in trust to found and estab- 
lish and forever maintain a hospital on my home place in said 
Arlington, consisting of about two and one-half acres with the 
buildings thereon, for the benefit of the residents of said Arlington 
suffering from injuries or from sickness or disease, and of others 
not residing in Arlington who may be admitted therein for treat- 
ment, and also to establish and maintain on said premises a train- 
ing school for nurses, for the purpose of educating and training 
women for intelligent and effective service to the sick and helpless." 

This is the language of the will, which contains all the neces- 
sar}^ provisions to make the gift available for the purpose named. 
The estate inventoried about $30,000. The home place Mr. 
Symmes inherited from his father. The property was originally 
deeded to the family by the Indians when the whites first settled 
in this locality, and 'Sir. Symmes is said to have held the original 
grant set forth in strange characters on parchment. 

When all legal formalities had been complied with and the 
trustees had given the project full consideration, it w^as the 
unanimous decision that the house and its location were entirely 
unsuited to the use to which it had been devoted. 

Having obtained authority to sell, application was made to 
the town of Arlington for permission to locate the proposed 
building on a portion of the wood lot at the Town Farm. This 
was granted, and when the time comes to erect the building it 
will occupy this site. 

In this connection it is eminently proper to insert a brief sketch 
of Mr. Symmes published by the Advocate in announcing his 
death and his generous gift. 

Mr. Symmes has always resided in Arlington on the home 
farm where he was born. He inherited most of his property from 
his father, sharing the estate with his two sisters, Mrs. Priscilla 



168 Toum of Aiiington 

Symmes Locke, widow of Josiah Locke, and jMiss Sarah Symmes. 
Fifty or more years ago ]Mr. Symmes was prominent in the local 
affairs of the town, and for seventeen years of this period he filled 
a position on the board of assessors, Mr. George Y. Wellington 
being associated with him a portion of the time, and the close 
personal friendship then formed was maintained to the close of 
life. Mr. Symmes relied largely on his advice in many matters, 
and in the generous bequest to his native town it is easy to trace 
an influence that has made Arlington the recipient of other bene- 
factions than this latest most generous gift. At one time he was 
in the clothing business on Union street, Boston, but his life has 
really been spent in Arlington, and w^hatever activities he has 
been interested in have been connected with the home farm. He 
and his daughter were one time prominently identified with the 
Orthodox Congregational church of Arlington, and are still held 
in deep regard by old members of this church. Mr. Symmes 
enjoyed a unique distinction from the fact that although he has 
resided on the home place all his life, yet he has lived in three 
towns. The Symmes place was in early years in the precinct of 
Charlestown, then this territory was included in the township of 
West Cambridge, which finall}- became the town of Arlington. 
Mr. Symmes died in his eighty-fifth year. He was the son of 
Stephen and Priscilla Reed Symmes. Mrs. Ira L. Russell, and 
Mrs. Edwin Farmer of Arlington, are nieces of Mr. Symmes. 
The funeral took place Thursday afternoon at three o'clock and 
was conducted by Rev. S. C. Bushnell of Pleasant street Con- 
gregational church and the burial was in the [Mount Pleasant 
Cemetery. 

The office of " Inspector of Buildings " was created by a vote 
of the town at a meeting held April 1, 190L At the meeting 
held Nov. 24, 1902, it was voted to discontinue the old-time 
rule of allowing " discount for prompt payment of taxes." 

Feb. 28, 1902, the mill stream carried away the old dam at 
Fowle's Arlington ]\Iills, washing out Mystic street roadbed and 
causing large damage to the culvert under the street. 

On the night of May 4, 1901, the alarm from Box 36, located 
at Town Hall, drew to the Center the usual group paying little 
or no attention to signals from other stations. This time the 
fire was under the roof of this building, and investigation after 
the blaze had been extinguished led to the conviction that this 



Past and Present 169 



attempt had been made to destroy the building to hide a defal- 
cation in the treasury department, due to the misappropriation of 
funds by a young man now serving his sentence in state prison. 
By a strange oversight the fire had been kindled directly under 
the air pipe sujjplying power to the gong, and it had hardly 
started before the expanding air gave warning to the watchman 
in the police station. The damage to the building was not 
great. 

The venerable B. Delmont Locke, who was chosen to the sev- 
eral offices of town clerk, treasurer, and collector in 1874, lost 
none of the high 'esteem in which he had been held by the finan- 
cial disaster brought upon him by his good nature, but in his 
enfeebled condition it proved too great a shock, and he died 
Oct. 3, 1904, sincerely mourned by others than his own wide- 
reaching family connections. 

Immediately following the discovery of the complicated affairs 
in the finances of the town, a radical change was made. The 
offices were diA'orced, three being chosen instead of one, and the 
rooms were changed in their arrangement, so clerk, collector, and 
treasurer should have separate apartments. All the financial 
concerns Avere also to have the scrutiny of an auditor. The 
following is the official vote: 

Beginning with the year 1903, only one auditor shall be elected. 
It shall be the duty of the auditor, in addition to the duties 
imposed on him by law, to make statements to the selectmen, at 
regular intervals during a financial year, of the conditions of the 
several departments of the town; to inspect all bills presented 
against the town, see that they have the approval of the board 
or committee contracting the same, and are in proper form, indi- 
cate the account to which they are chargeable, and if there are 
available funds, shall transmit the same with his certificate to the 
treasurer, and draw a warrant authorizing paj'ment thereof; to 
examine the books of the treasurer, collector, water board, sewer 
department, and all departments holding funds or trust funds 
for the benefit of the town, and report at the next annual town 
meeting in detail, under their respective heads, all the receipts 
and expenditures by the town for the previous year. Said report 
shall be printed by the selectmen with the annual reports of the 



170 Town of Arlington 

town officers before the annual meeting. Said auditor shall 
receive for his services such compensation as the town shall deter- 
mine. The term of the present auditor shall terminate with the 
annual town meeting of 1903. 

July 1, 1901, Garret J. Cody, a member of the regular day force 
on the police, was shot and almost instantly killed by an insane 
criminal who had committed an atrocious assault on an Italian 
fruit peddler, and was attempting to escape arrest at the hands of 
officer Cody. It was not until after his arrest and confinement 
awaiting trial that insanity plainly developed in the prisoner, who 
died in the asylum to which he was committed. 

Under authority of the act of the legislature providing for 
such a board, at a meeting held Feb. 8, 1904, the town created a 
Board of Public Works, members to be chosen annually. 

In the early fall of 1904, Warren W. Rawson, who had fiUed 
several local offices at various times, was nominated for the office 
of Councilor by the Republican Convention of the district of 
which Arlington is a part, was elected and served on the Gover- 
nor's Council during the years 1905-'06. At a banquet given in 
observance of the anniversary of ]\Ir. Rawson's sixtieth birthday 
in January of this year, Governor Guild, Lieutenant-Governor 
Draper and his associates in the Council, together with many 
others prominent in political affairs, graced the occasion and 
made it a notable event. 

The equipping the Police Station with a Game well Police Signal 
System of the latest pattern out of an appropriation made at the 
annual March meeting of 1906, suggests a brief review of the 
development of the police system of Arlington, now admitted to 
be in excellent condition. 

In 1864 the town voted that Constable John H. Hartwell 
(whose father, John B. Hartwell, succeeded Luke Agur in the 
office of constable in 1853), be appointed police officer. 

Mr, Hartwell served as constable, police officer, and chief of 
police until Eugene Mead was named as his successor. He was 
followed by Alonzo S. Harriman in 1894, who gave up the office 
to Thomas 0. D. .Urquhart in May, 1905. The regular force now 
consists of seven regular officers besides the chief, and several 



Past and Present 



171 



special officers on call when extra service is required. The sta- 
tion is well equipped, and an ambulance, the gift of Edwin S. 
Farmer, completes the outfit. 

In 1893 the town changed its rule of electing all the officers 
annually for a term of one year, to the choice of selectmen and 
assessors, one annually, for terms of three years each. By a vote 
passed at the meeting held in 1904, a return was made to the old 
plan, so far as relates to the selectmen, and three to serve for one 
year each were elected at the 
meeting held March 4, 1907. 

In the summer of 1906 an 
old landmark was removed 
when the vote of the town to 
clear and level the recently 
purchased townhouse site 
was carried into effect, and 
ilenotomy Hall became a 
thing of the past. A bit of 
its history will be of interest 
now and in the future. 

Sept. 25th, 1809, ''William 
Cotting of Waltham, baker," 
bought of the Whittemore 
brothers, seven rods and 
eleven feet of land on the 
main road, "it being the 

estate which was for some time occupied in the baking business." 
This indicates that Mr. Cotting was not Arlington's first baker ; 
but he made a success of the business, for his later purchases 
of land extended westward as far as the old Jason Russell estate, 
eastward to the Whittemore land, southward to the limits of 
Kensington Park. His dwelling adjoined the bakery, and is 
shown in the article describing buildings on jMassachusetts 
avenue. 

The lower story he used as his baker}^, and the ovens he put in 
were not enlarged during the ninety-four consecutive years it was 
in use by himself and succeeding proprietors. The upper story 




MENOTOMY HALL 



172 Town of Arlington 

was a single room with convenient ante-rooms in adjoining sec- 
tions of additions. It is this section which mal<:es the building 
of historic value. 

When Hiram Lodge, F. and A. j\I., was reorganized in 1843, 
the meetings were held in Lexington, but shortl}^ afterwards the 
hall over the bakery was fitted for a lodge room, and this was 
"Masonic Hall" until more commodious quarters were found in 
the building on the corner of Massachusetts avenue and Medford 
street. 

Bethel Lodge, No. 12, L 0. 0. F., followed as tenants and occu- 
pied iMenotomy Hall as their lodge room until the erection of 
Savings Bank Building in 1874 provided them more ample and 
elegant quarters. 

Li the interval the hall had been used Ijv the Orthodox Con- 
gregational Church during a portion of the time while their 
church was being built (this AAas in 1842), the Universalist 
society having set the example of holding meetings there the 
year previous. 

Here the successful Methodist Church of West ^ledford was 
organized and held meetings for several years, and St. John's 
Episcopal Church also held services Avhile the building of the 
chapel on the corner of Academy and Maple streets was going 
forward. 

It was the headquarters of a social club of which a number of 
leading citizens were memliers during the seventies; here Post 36, 
G. A. R., had headquarters for a time; the Salvation Army used 
it as a "barrack" through two seasons. 

When the projDerty passed to the town of Arlington, Arlington 
Veteran Firemen's Association was given free use of the hall, and 
it was this organization that moved out its effects to give the 
demolishers their chance. 

jMr. Cotting's successor in the baking business was the late 
Jesse P. Pattee, whose successful career and domination in to^n 
affairs is well remembered by older people. On his death the 
business passed to other hands. N. J. Hardy was carrying on the 
baking business there even after] the tearing-down process had 
begun. 



Past and Present 



173 



The narrative of Arlington's growth and development included 
in this Section Three, covering as it does the period of the town's 
corporate existence from 1807 to 1907, is appropriately supple- 
mented with the names of those who have filled the principal 
elective offices (with the exception of School Committee printed 
with the school section) during this first century, as follows: 

Prixcipal ToW'N Officers of Arlington, 1S07-1907. 



REPRESENTATIVES TO GENERAL COURT. 



Samuel Butterfield, 1808-11. 
Thomas Russell, 1812-17 (1818 — 

none sent), 1819-21 (1822 — 

none sent), 1823-27 (1828 — 

none sent). 
Benjamin Locke, Esq., 1829-31. 
Leonard Green, 1832, 1833, 1835. 
Joshua Avery, 1834, 1836, 1837. 
James Russell, Esq., 1838, 1839 

(resigned), 1841, 1842. 
William Locke, 2d, 1838-40. 
Jesse P. Pattee, 1840. 
George Stearns, 1843. 
Josiah H. Russell, 1844. 
Joseph 0. Wellington, 1845 (1846 

— none sent) . 
William Dickson, 1847 (1848 — 

none sent). 
Reuben Hopkins, 1849. 
David W. Horton, 1850. 
Mansur W. Marsh, 1851. 



Xehemiah M. Fessenden, 1852, 

1855. 
Albert Winn, 1853, 1861. 
Rev. George Hill, 1854. 
John Schouler, 1856. 
Moses Proctor, 1857. 
Joseph Burrage, 1859. 
Samuel Butterfield, 1863. 
Joseph S. Potter, 1865-67. 
Jesse Bacon, 1869. 
J. Winslow Peirce, 1872. 
Samuel D. Hicks, 1875. 
William G. Peck, 1877-1880. 
Dr. Jonas C. Harris, 1882. 
John H. Hardy, 1884. 
Warren A. Peirce, 1886-7. 
William H. H. Tuttle, 1890-01. 
James A. Bailey, Jr., 1894-95. 
J. Howell Crosby, 1899-1902. 
Arthur J. Wellington, 1905-06. 
Horace D. Hardv, 1907. 



SELECTMEN. 



Jonathan Whittemore, 1807, 1808. 

Daniel Adams, 1807-12. 

John Tufts, 1807, 1808. 

Samuel Locke, Esq., 1807 (1808 — 

excused). 
William Whittemore, Jr., 1807, Esq. 

1808. 
James Hill, 1808. 
George Prentiss, 1809-12. 
Thomas Russell, Jr., 1809-25. 
James Perry, 1813-22. 
Walter Russell, 1813-18. 
Benjamin Locke, 1819-22. 



William Locke, 2d, 1823-26, 1836, 
(thanks of town voted 1837, for 
his long and faithful services). 

Jonathan Frost, 1823-25. 

Charles Wellington, 1826-31. 

Joshua Avery, 1826-36 (thanks of 
town voted 1837, for his long and 
faithful services in this office). 

Henry WeUington, 1827-29. 

Abner Peirce, 1830-35. 

Edward Smith, 1832-36 (thanks of 
town voted 1837, for his services 
in this office). 



174 



Town of Arlington 



James Russell, Esq., 1837-44. 
Philip B. Fessenden, 1837-40. 
Leonard Green, 1837-40. 
Mansur W. Marsh, 1841-48, 1851- 

53, 1855-57. 
Walter Fletcher, 1841-43. 
John Schouler, 1844-46, 1853. 
Josiah H. Russell, 1845, 1846. 
Wilham Dickson, 1847-50, 1854-57. 
Albert Winn, 1847-50, 1852, 1853, 

1856, 1857. 
Amos Hill, Jr., 1849. 
Joseph 0. WelUngton, 1850, 1854. 
Lewis P. Bartlett, 1851, 1852. 
Moses Proctor, 1851. 
Washington J. Lane, 1854, 1858- 

63 (thanks of town voted for long 

and faithful service). 
George C. Russell, 1855. 
Samuel Butterfield, 1858-66. 
Samuel F. Woodbridge, 1858-62 

(resigned, and thanks of town 

voted) . 
William Stowe, 1862 (dechned). 
Samuel S. Davis, 1863-67. 
Reuben Hopkins, 1864. 
Joseph S. Potter, 1865-67. 
George Hill, 1867 (decUned). 
Samuel S. Davis, 1867-71. 
Joseph S. Potter, 1867-68. 
Charles H. Crane, 1867. 
J. Winslow Peirce, 1868-71, 1873. 



Jacob F. Hobbs, 1868-70, 1872. 
Otis Green, 1868-69. 
George C. Russell, 1870. 
Warren Rawson, 1871-72. 
John S. Crosb}^ 1872. 
Jesse Bacon, 1872. 
James Durgin, 1872, 1874-79. 
Henry Mott, 1873, 1878-1883. 
Henry Swan, 1873. 
John Schouler, 1874-77. 
Wilham G. Peck, 1874-77. 
Wilham H. Allen, 1878-1882. 
James A. Bailey, 1880-82, 1887-90; 
Henry J. Locke, 1882-84. 
Samuel E. Kimball, 1882-85. 
Alonzo W. Damon, 1883-84. 
Jacob F. Hobbs, 1884-85. 
George D. Tufts, 1884-96. 
James A. Marden, 1885-86. 
Charles T. Scannell, 1885-87. 
Warren A. Peirce, 1886-87, 1889-92. 
George D. Moore, 1887-89, 1890-91. 
Walter Crosby, 1887-93. 
Winfield S. Durgin, 1890-95. 
Wilham N. Winn, 1891-92. 
Edward S. Fessenden, 1892-97. 
Edwin S. Farmer, 1895, 1904. 
George I. Doe, 1896, 1905. 
Warren W. Rawson, 1903-06. 
James A. Bailey, Jr., 1904-07. 
S. Fred Hicks, 1905-07. 
Fred S. Mead, 1906-07. 



ASSESSORS. 



George Prentiss, 1808-11, 1816. 
Benjamin Locke, 1808-19. 
Samuel Butterfield, 1808-11, 1814, 

1815. 
Daniel Adams, 1812, 1813. 
Isaac Locke, 1812-15, 1820-25, 

1835-38. 
John Adams, 1816. 
James Hill, 1817-19. 
Wilham Locke, Jr., 1817-19, 2d, 

1820, 1821, Jr., 1822, 2d, 1823- 

25, Esq., 1842, 1843, 1846. 



Joshua Avery, 1820-22, 1838. 
Miles Gardner, 1823-25, 1827, 1828. 
Jonathan Frost, 2d, 1826-28 (ex- 
cused 1828). 
John Perry, 1826-31. 
Walter Russell, 1826. 
Ephraim Tufts, 1828 (excused). 
Amos Hill, 1828 (excused). 
George Stearns, 1828-34. 
Reuben Johnson, 1829-34. 
Kimball Farmer, 1832-34. 
Da\ad Dodge, 1835-41. 



Past and Present 



175 



Benjamin Hill, 1835-37. 

Mansur W. Marsh, 1839-41, 1843. 

Charles Muzzey, 1839-41. 

Daniel Cacly, 1843. 

Abbot Allen, 1844. 

Thomas P. Peirce, 1844, 1845, 1848. 

Silas Frost, 1844, 1845. 

William J3ickson, 1845, 1846, 1850- 

60 (resigned). 
Isaiah Jenkins, 1846. 
Daniel Clark, 1847. 
Edwin Locke, 1847. 
Davis Locke, 1847. 
Washington J. Lane, 1848, 1851, 

1852, 1854, 1857-63. 
Joseph 0. Wellington, 1848, 1849, 

1855. 
David Clark, 1849, 1850. 
Albert Winn, 1849, 1866, 1867. 
Stephen Symmes, Jr., 1850-67. 
George A. Locke, 1853. 
George C. Russell, 1856, 1864, 

1865. 
Samuel S. Davis, 1860-63. 



David Crosby, 1864. 

George Y. WeUington, 1865, 1866. 

Abel R. Proctor, 1867. 

Addison Hill, 1868-71. 

John F. Allen, 1868-72. 

George C. Russell, 1869-71. 

Ira O. Carter, 1872, 1884-85. 

Henry Mott, 1872-84. 

B. Delmont Locke, 1873-91. 

Charles Schwamb, 1873. 

Thomas P. Peirce, 1873-84. 

Alfred D. Hoitt, 1884-94. 

Jacob Baird, 1885-87. 

James A. Bailey, 1887-90. 

George W. Austin, 1890-93. 

William N. Winn, 1890-92. 

Leander D. Bradley, 1892-93, 

1903-07. 
Warren Rawson, 1892-93. 
George I. Doe, 1893-1903. 
Frank Y. Wellington, 1893-98. 
Lucien C. Tyler, 1894-1905. 
Omar W^ Whittemore, 1898-1907. 
Philip A. Hendricks, 1905-07. 



TOWN CLERKS. 



Thomas Russell, Jr., 1807-25 (1826 
— excused). 

Timothy Wellington, 1826-34. 

Henry Whittemore, 1835 (ex- 
cused) . 

Isaac Shattuck, Jr., 1835-38. 

Benjamin Poland, 1839-42. 

William Whittemore, Jr., 1843-45 
(resigned) . 



WiUiam M. Chase, 1845. 
Moses Proctor, 1846-52. 
John Locke, 1853-55. 
Abel R. Proctor, 1856-68 (re- 
signed) . 
John F. Allen, 1868-74 (resigned). 
B. Delmont Locke, 1874-1901. 
Harvey S. Sears, 1901-03. 
Thomas J. Robinson, 1903-07. 



TOWN TREASURERS. 



John Adams, 1807-18. 
Walter Russell, 1819-26, 1831 (re- 
signed). 
Gershom Whittemore, 1827, 1828. 
Isaac Hill, 1829 (resigned). 
Col. Thomas Russell, 1830. 
Benjamin Hill, 1830-38. 



Abbot Allen, 1839-46. 
Thomas J. Russell, 1847. 
Josiah H. Russell, 1848-59. 
Abel R. Proctor, 1860-67. 
John F. Allen, 1868-1874. 
B. Belmont Locke, 1874-1901. 
Harvey S. Sears, 1901-03. 



William A. Muller, 1903-07. 



176 



Town of Arlington 



AVATER COMMISSIONERS. 



Benjamin Poland, 1872-5. 
Samuel S. Davis, 1872. 
J. Winslow Peirce, 1872-4. 
Warren Rawson, 1872, 1878. 
Jesse Bar-on, 1872. 
Walter Russell, 1873-4. 
George Hill, 1875-7. 
John Fillebrown, 1875-1880. 
Richard L. Hodgdon, 1876-7. 
Henrv Mott. 1878-1885. 



William T. Peck, 1S80-2. 
Warren Rawson, 1881-1802. 
Samuel E. Kimball, 1883, 1893-5. 
Warren A. Peirce, 1884-6. 
Alfred D. Hoitt, 1885-1903. 
Apollos J. Tillson, 1885-1901. 
George W. Lane, 1887-1903. 
Frank W. Hodgdon, 1894-6. 
Peter Schwamb, 1896-1903. 
George P. Winn, 1897-1903. 



Since 1895 Arlington has from time to time added to the foregoing list 
of elective officers, to meet changed local conditions or in compliance 
with public statutes. March 15, 1895, the Selectmen were chosen to serve 
also as a Board of Health. In 1896 a new board consisting of Edward 
S. Fessenden, Edward P. Stickney, Edwin Mills (to serve three, two and 
one years in order named) was elected. Mr. Fessenden served as chair- 
man until 1907, his successor being Dr. Laurence L. Peirce; John S. 
Lamson was elected to succeed Edwin Mills in 1905; Dr. Stickney gave 
way for Dr. Charles A. Atwood in 1906. 

Sewer Commissioners were chosen in 1895, the Board consisting of 
Edward S. Fessenden, George D. Tufts, Winfield S. Durgin. Warren 
W. Rawson was chosen to fill Mr. Tufts' place, and Messrs. Fessenden, 
Durgin, and Rawson served until the duties of their office were trans- 
ferred to the Board of Public Works in 1904. 

In 1897 the town accepted the act enabling Selectmen to act as a 
Board of Survey in laying out streets. In 1904 the town accepted the 
act authorizing a Board of Public Works. To this board, made up of 
the Selectmen and a sjjecial board of three elective officers, all matters 
pertaining to water department, sewer construction and maintenance, 
street building, etc., are in the hands of this joint board. The first 
Board of Public Works consisted of Peter Schwamb, William X. Winn, 
Samuel E. Kimball. They served until 1907. when Henry W. Hayes was 
chosen to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Kimball declining further ser- 
vice on the board. 

April 1, 1901, Lucien C. Tyler was appointed Inspector of Buildings. 
He died in office, Sept. 23, 1904. Robert W. Pond was named as his 
successor, and now holds the office. 

The following have served as head of the police department, in the 
order named, — John H. Hartwell, Eugene Mead, Alonzo S. Harriman, 
Thomas O. D. Urquhart, the latter reappointed in 1907. 




SECTION FOUR 



ARLINGTON'S MILITARY RECORD 



IN his introduction to this volume the writer says, "The 
people of this section have shared to the full in all responsi- 
bilities resting upon them as citizens of precinct, town, state, and 
nation." In no sphere of action is this more strictly true than 
of their response for duty, with arms in their hands, where the 
result might be loss of life. 

The prime essential in the earlier days of colonial life was the 
musket and ability to use the same quickly and effectively against 
the enemy. The second was organization under recognized 
authority that could be effective when nunibers were to be 
encountered. 

By order of the General Court in early colonial times, towns 
or precincts were obliged to supply arms to those not possessing 
or able to procure them, and every able-bodied man was expected 
to respond to any call for the defense of the Colony. 

Through a fortunate train of circumstances, this section was 
from earliest times exempt from troubles with the Indians result- 
ing in massacres that make dark the pages of history of other 
sections, for the acknowledged head of the Massachusetts tribe 

177 



178 Town of Arlington 

of Indians holding control over a large section of what is now Mid- 
dlesex County, was SqiiaAv-Sachem, widow of a former chief, 
whose other title was "Queen of the jMassachusetts." 

This potentate, whose home was on the pleasant slopes that 
stretch down to the western edge of ^lystic Pond, sold to the 
colonial government (probably about the year 1638) all her lands 
excepting her homestead, for ten pounds in cash " and also Cam- 
bridge is to give Squaw-Sachem a coat every winter while she 
liveth." It would seem as though this extra obligation ought to 
have been willingly and scrupulously kept, but the fact is the 
General Court had to interfere and compel Cambridge to give 
"so much corn as to make up thirty-five bushels, and four coats 
for last year and this," indicating neglect of obligation and unwill- 
ingness to fulfill the same. This treaty was formally acceded to 
by five other chiefs under her jurisdiction, and the treaty was 
never broken. "Queen of the Massachusetts" died in 1644. 

But other sections, as has been said, were not so fortunate, 
and to calls for aid, the fighting men of Menotomy responded. 
Matthew Abby, Thomas Batherwick, Samuel Buck, Jonathan 
Dunster, Jonathan Holden, Jason Russell, William Russell, 
Gershom Swan, John Wellington served from this Precinct as 
privates; John Adams and Gershom Cutter as troopers, in King 
Philip's War; and in the attack on Canada in the French and 
Indian War, Menotomy was represented in the ranks of the colo- 
nial troops. 

On Nov. 12, 1758, the Rev. Samuel Cooke preached a sermon 
on the return of Captain Adams and company from the French 
War with a loss of only a single man. This sermon was remem- 
bered in December, 1848, by the centenarian John Adams, the 
son of Capt. Thomas Adams, the commander of the company. 
James Adams, a son of John Adams, in a letter dated at Hartford, 
Pa., Dec. 27, 1848, and addressed to the late Dr. Benjamin Cutter, 
of Woburn, Mass., speaks of the occurrence thus: 

Dear Friend: I received a letter from you dated December 
1st, likewise a sermon deliverd by Parson Cooke the Sunday after 
my grandfather, Thomas Adams, returned from eight months 
service in the French War. .Mv father recollects the time verv 



Past and Present 179 

well ; he was then about fourteen years of age, and was very- 
anxious to go with him, but his father would not consent to have 
him go; but he went with him to Springfield, then returned home. 
The company that 'listed under my grandfather were from a 
niunber of towns: all that went from Menotomy returned, except 
Joseph Robbins, who died in a fit. Father recollects going to 
meeting, and when I read the sermon to him, it was fresh in his 
memory. * * * 

Ebenezer Winship was shot and scalped by the Indians, 
May 14, 1756, but recovered from his wounds. A narrow strip 
of scalp from forehead to top of head Was torn off. 

Such were the men and this the sort of training they received; 
by it were fitted to bear their full share of burden and respon- 
sibility in a crisis which was approaching. The curtailing of 
privileges, the ignoring of rights, and the imposing of burdens on 
the colonies by England, which were resented and resisted until 
overt acts culminated in the war of the Revolution, is a "thrice 
told tale," available in almost numberless histories concerning 
events of the fifteen or twenty years prior to 1775, and these 
pages, which are intended to simply give events of a local char- 
acter, cannot properly be burdened with repeating them. 

Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, the seat of rebellion against 
British tyrannies, were the next-door neighbors to old Meno- 
tomy, and the fact that one of her old-time taverns was a regular 
meeting place of the "Committee of Safety," shows the attitude 
of her citizens towards the plans for resistance that were being 
formulated. 

Prior to the events of April 19, General Gage had dissolved 
the legislature, and on orders from England had for some time 
been seeking the arrest of Hancock and Adams to send them to 
England for trial on charge of treason. But the Provincial 
Congress, though a self-constituted body, continued to act, and 
its Committee of Safety and Supply, by their authority, exercised 
executive powers. They had in their hands as early as October, 
1774, five thousand pounds with which to purchase stores (they 
had asked for twenty thousand pounds), arms and ammunition, 
and evidently had spent it. The accumulated provision to meet 
force with force was stored at Concord, and it was the double 



180 Town of Arlington 

purpose of destroying these stores and arresting Hancock and 
Adams t^at moved General Gage to start the expedition which 
had so disastrous an ending on April 19, 1775. 

It seems singular that, considering the important part Meno- 
tomy bore in the initial act in the war of the Revolution on the 
memorable 19th of April, 1775, many years should have elapsed 
before any connected story of that part was told, and that hav- 
ing been told it should have been so generally forgotten. The 
author of the story was Rev. Samuel A. Smith, pastor of First 
Parish Church from March 13, 1854 to I\Iay 20, 1865, when he 
died in office aged thirty-six years. To him all future generations 
will be indebted for his patient researches and graphic grouping 
of facts. In a leaflet issued on the occasion of a visit of dele- 
gates to National Encampment Grand Army of the Republic 
in Boston in 1904, the following story of the events of April 19, 
1775, as told by Mr. Smith, was retold, matters important in 
1864, but of no historic moment now, alone being eliminated. 

That "Honor to whom honor is due" is a rule "more honored 
in the breach than in observance," is especially well illustrated 
by the position the town of Arlington holds, or rather fails to 
hold, in connection with the events of April 19, 1775, that have 
given to Lexington and Concord undying fame, making them 
synonymous with the birthday of American liberty the wide 
world over. In the fierceness of musketry battle, in number of 
men engaged, in men killed and wounded, in amount of war 
material captured, no other place between the point where the 
British troops embarked on their expedition and that historic 
point at Concord bridge where they turned on that disastrous 
retreat, can compare with Arlington or show as many monuments 
marking historic sites as stand within its limits. 

Then why, the question naturally arises, are the mass of people 
so uninformed regarding a matter of so great (to the town at 
least) historic value. First because the town was not incorpo- 
rated until 1807, being at the time to which we refer a part of 
Cambridge, with the local name of Menotomy or Second Precinct 
of Cambridge. Instead of retaining this old and honorable name 
when incorporated as a separate township, the name of West 



Past and Present 181 



Cambridge was adopted and when, in 1867, the movement in 
favor of a more distinctive name was set on foot, the entirely 
meaningless name of Arlington was adopted. In this shifting 
names of a given locality — iMenotomy, Second Precinct of 
Cambridge, West Cambridge, Arlington — identity has been 
swallowed up, and our connection with the first open clash with 
the British in the struggle for independence lost. 

In the interests of a correct history of a day that will be for- 
ever proudly remembered by Americans, to arouse a local town 
pride, and to secure any advantages legitimately accruing from 
definite knowledge regarding honored patriots and an honorable 
past, we have grouped available data and present them in this form. 

In the carrying out of our purpose it is not at all necessary to 
even allude to the events preceding the march of British troops 
through the main street of tenotomy (now Arlington), now 
named ^Massachusetts avenue, on their way to Lexington to 
accomplish the arrest of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, at 
Lexington; also to destroy the military stores lodged at Concord. 
The events have demanded the best work of the ablest historians, 
most graphic writers and inspired poets. 

The troops assigned to this duty made a midnight march by 
the old Black Horse Tavern kept by a man named Wetherbee 
(site numbered 333 [Massachusetts avenue), a regular meeting 
place of Boston's Committee of Safety (and where that com- 
mittee was in conference with the Committee on Supplies the 
day before), the Cooper Tavern where later defenseless citizens 
were murdered in cold blood, and so on to their first interruption 
on the village green at Lexington. Vice-President Elbridge 
Gerry and Colonels Lee and Orne of the Provincials, members of 
the Committee of Safety, had remained at the Black Horse 
Tavern overnight, and as Paul Revere reached IMenotomy by way 
of what is now Medford street, people easterly of it had received 
no warning. 

As a consequence the guests at Black Horse Tavern had their 
first knowledge of approaching danger of capture and imprison- 
ment from the appearance of a British officer and squad of soldiers 
detailed to search the house. By the l^ack door they escaped to 



182 Town of Arlington 

a nearby cornfield and by hiding amid the stubble, escaped 
detection and finally reached Boston by way of Medford. A 
severe cold contracted in this adventure cost General Lee his life 
not long afterwards. 

This march was during the night of April IS, 1775, but it 
was about two o'clock on the morning of the 19th that the troops 
passed along as silently as masses of men can be moved. It was 
not long, however, before the commander had ample proof that 
his march was discovered, that the people generally were awake, 
so sent those of his force who were in light marching order to 
hurry forward to Concord, dispatching a messenger to Boston 
with a request that General Gage hiu'ry forward reenforcements. 

The marching troops were hardly out of sight before Capt. 
Benjamin Locke was able to muster his company, enlisted April 
6 (less than two weeks before), and at their head followed in the 
wake of the "regulars," on the watch for a chance to strike a 
blow in defense of home. For all the time j\Ir. B. Delmont 
Locke was treasurer, the original roll of ^lenotomy men, as well 
as the musket Captain Locke carried, was in a conspicuous place 
in his office in Arlington Town Hall. The list numbers fifty, but 
as there were residents of Boston, Stoneham, Lexington, Woburn, 
Charlestown (two or three each) in addition to the men residing 
here, there are no means of knowing how many were in service 
under Captain Locke on that day. It is safe to assume from 
what is known, that not a well man was absent from his place. 

But these were not the only heroes sustaining the honor of the 
town. After the passing of Lord Percy with the reenforcements 
(some 1200 men) sent for by Major Pitcairn and the departure of 
Captain Locke and his IMinute-men to hover in the rear of this 
second detachment, even before daylight the old men of the 
town, exempt by reason of age from military duty, with muskets 
in hand, gathered on the church green, anxious to be helpers in 
case of need. Word coming [to them in the forenoon that the 
supply train, delayed while the planks over the Roxbury bridge 
were replaced, was coming on with only a small guard, they 
gathered again, this time in the Cooper Tavern, on the corner 
of Massachusetts avenue and Medford street (it was through this 



Past and Present 183 



street that Paul Revere rode on his way to Lexington) and laid 
plans for its capture. There were about a dozen in all, one of 
whom, a mulatto named David Lamson, had seen active service, 
and the others whose names are known were James and Joseph 
Belknap. James Budge. Israel ^lead, Ammi Cutter. There is a 
conflict in the record as to which of these commanded the party. 
One record says Lamson was the leader, another accords the 
honor to Philip Payson of Chelsea. 

It is more than likely that in a little company like this, called 
suddenly into service, there was concert of action without need of 
special leadership. They simply hurried to their point of vantage 
opposite the First Parish Church where a bank wall of earth and 
stone made a sufficient breastwork, there to await the arrival of 
the supply train and its convoy. When it arrived opposite where 
these old men of ^Tenotomy were stationed, the men rose and, 
aiming at the soldiers, ordered their surrender. There was a 
show of resistance and several shots were fired, but the guard 
soon took to their heels, running down the lane which is now 
known as Pleasant street, to be there captured, or rather to sur- 
render to old mother Batheric, who turned them over to Capt. 
Ephraim Frost, in whose care they remained until exchanged. 

The wagons were drawn into the vacant grounds opposite the 
church and their contents distributed among the people, the 
horses that had not been shot down were driven over to Med- 
ford, the dead ones drawn off to Spring Valley, near the present 
residence of John T. Trowbridge. These old men finished up 
the day by capturing Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, of the 
Fourth Regiment, "King's Own," who had been wounded in 
the foot and was on his way back to Boston on horseback. 
A memorial stone in front of the First Parish Church bears this 
inscription: 

At this point 
April 19th, 1775 

THE OLD MEN OF MeNOTOMY 

captured a convoy of 
eighteen soldiers 

WITH supplies on THE WAY TO 

JOIN THE British at Lexington 



184 



Town of Arlington 



The young men of Menotomy had found their way to Lexing- 
ton, and were mingled with their comrades from other towns 
that awaited the retreat of the British troops, being held in 
cheek by the strong reenforcement sent out under Lord Percy, 
and who met the retreat (it had become a rout) of the troops 
sent out the night before within well organized lines, supported 
by cannon. This was at Lexington. 

After a period of rest, the retreat planned by Lord Percy, sup- 
ported by his artillery, was begun and continued until within 




JASON RUSSELL HOUSE 



the limits of what is now known as the town of Arlington in 
an orderly manner, strong flanking lines protecting the main 
column. 

It was between these "flankers" and the main body of British 
troops that the Minute-men of Menotomy and surrounding terri- 
tory (Medford, Woburn, Cambridge, Roxbury, Lynn, Needham, 
Dedham, Dorchester, Danvers, Salem, etc.) were caught as they 
were firing vipon the marching column. Finding themselves 
between two fires, the men on both sides of the road made a dash 
for cover, the survivors and unwounded crowdina: into the house 



Past and Present 



185 



of Jason Russell, now standing on the south side of Massachusetts 
avenue and nearly opposite Mill street. The monument on the 
street is inscribed as follows: 

Site of 

Jason Russell House 

avhere he and eleven others 

were captured, disarmed 

and killed by the 

retreating british 

April 19, 1775 

Several of the ^linute-men found safety in the cellar, which was 
not searched, but those in the upper rooms (nine soldiers and 

Mr. Russell) were shot or 
bayoneted. These men and 
-Alessrs. Jason Winship and 
Jabez Wyman (these last 
killed in Cooper Tavern) are 
now buried under a suitable 
monument in the First Parish 
Cemetery. This monument, 
erected in 1848, was built 
with money raised by popular 
subscription, Hon. Peter C. 
Brooks of Medford giving 
$100 of the $460.67 which 
The names of the soldiers killed are as 

Lieut. John Bacon, Needham 
Amos Mills, Needham 
Elias Haven, Dedham 
William Flint, Lynn 
Thomas Hauley, Lynn 
Ahednego Kajisdell, Lynn 
Ben.iamin Peirce, Salem 
Jonathan Parker, Needham 
Nathan CiiAMiiEiu.iN, Needham 

A grocery building on the corner of ^Massachusetts avenue and 
Water street was owned and occupied by Thomas Russell, and 




TABLET AT JASON RUSSELL HOUSE 



the monument cost. 
follows : 



186 Town of Arlington 

arountl this l;)uilding, the land between it and Cooper Tavern, 
and all along the avenue until after the troops passed Alewife 
Brook, the dividing line Ijetween Arlington and Cambridge, the 
fighting raged and many of the houses then standing on that 
highway were later used as hospitals. 

It is known that twenty-two Americans lost their lives within 
what are now the limits of Arlington (Danvers and Lynn suffer- 
ing next to ]\Ienotomy) during that day, and it is likely two or 
three times that number of the British were killed and a much 
larger number wounded, as it is acknowledged by all historians 
that the largest percentage of the loss was here, and besides 
numerous officers killed and wounded, there were 62 privates 
killed, 157 wounded, and 124 missing, according to official report 
to General Gage. 

There was a wanton destruction of life and property by the 
British soldiery that is a sad commentary on the spirit of revenge 
aroused by the organized opposition the troops had met, but 
then as now, "war is hell," and hellish passions are legitimate 
results. The L portion of the present Locke house, 844 Massa- 
chusetts avenue, was in 1775 the home of Deacon Joseph 
Adams. He was the custodian of the valuable silver communion 
service of First Parish Church. This house was entered by 
British soldiers, who stole this service and sold the same to a 
pawnbroker in Boston, from whom it was recovered, on payment 
of sum advanced, after the British had evacuated Boston. 
Stealing and destroying property were not the only depredations 
committed by the retreating soldiers. The memorial monument 
on the corner of Massachusetts avenue and Medford street, is 
lettered as follows : 

Here stood Cooper Tavern 

IN WHICH 

Jabez Wyman 

AND 

Jason Winship 

were killed by the british 

April 19, 1775 



Past and Present 187 



On the northerly corner of Russell Park, at the junction of 
Mystic and Chestnut streets, is a monument lettered as follows : 

near this spot 

Samuel Whittemore 

then 80 years old 

killed three british soldiers 

April 19, 1775 

he was shot, bayoneted 

beaten and left for dead 

but recovered and lived 

to be 98 years of age 

I'rom the historical address delivered by Rev. tSamuel Abbot 
Smith in 1864 already alluded to, we copy the following descrip- 
tion of the event the monument commemorates : 

Whittemore lay under cover of a wall near where the Russell 
school building now stands and when the retreating British 
halted in front of the First Parish church he fired his musket 
five oi" six times when he saw a file of five flankers approaching. 
Being lame he knew there was no chance for escape, so he fired 
at one of the soldiers with the charge just loaded in his musket, 
dropping him in his tracks. He had two pistols loaded and 
with one shot another soldier. In the act of discharging the 
other pistol, Whittemore was struck in the head by a bullet from 
the musket of a soldier and as he fell senseless the remaining 
flankers clubbed him, jabbed him with bayonets and left him for 
•dead. Later he was found to be alive and was carried to Cooper 
Tavern where Dr. Tufts of Bedford dressed his wounds, but said 
he could not live. The tough old octogenarian, however, seemed 
to make new blood to take the place of the old he had lost, and 
survived that notable day for eighteen years. When asked if he 
was not sorry, he replied, "No, I would run the same chance 
again." 

The foregoing is an account of what transpired in tenotomy 
on April 19, 1775, from the standpoint of the people living here 
at the time. It may properly be supplemented by the events 
of the day as seen by a British officer who kept a diary, extracts 
from which were published in Atlantic MontJthj for April, 1877,- 
as follows : 

Before the whole had quitted the town [Concord] they were 
fired on from houses and behind trees, and before they had gone 



188 Town of Arlington 

one half a mile were fired on from all sides, but mostly from the 
rear, where people had hid themselves in houses till we had 
passed and then fired; the country was an amazing strong one, 
full of hills, woods, stone walls, etc., which the rebels did not fail 
to take advantage of; for they were all lined with people who 
kept an incessant fire upon us, as we did too upon them; but not 
with the same advantage, for they were so concealed there was 
hardly any seeing of them; in this way we marched nine or ten 
miles, their numbers increasing from all points, while ours were 
reduced by deaths, wounds and fatigue, and we were totally 
surrounded with such an incessant fire as it is impossible to con- 
ceive; our ammunition was likewise near exhausted. In this 
critical situation we perceived the First Brigade coming to our 
assistance (Fourth, Twenty-third, and Forty-seventh Regiments, 
battalion of marines, two six-pound field pieces). As soon as 
the rebels saw this reenforcement, and tested the field pieces, they 
retired. We formed on a rising ground [near the Munroe Tavern 
in Lexington] and rested ourselves; in about half an hour we 
marched again, and some of the Brigade taking the flanking 
parties we marched pretty quiet for about two miles; they then 
began to pepper us again from the same sort of places, but at 
a greater distance. 

We were now obliged to force almost every house in the road, 
for the rebels had taken possession of them and galled us exceed- 
ingly; but they sufi"ered for their temerity, for all that were found 
in the houses were put to death. When we got to Menotomy 
there was a very heavy fire; after that we took the short cut into 
Charlestown road and we went into Charlestown without any 
great interruption. We got there between seven and eight o'clock 
at night, took possession of the hill above the town and waited 
for the boats to carry us over. We got home very late in the 
night. Thus ended the expedition, which from the beginning 
to the end was ill-planned and ill-executed as it was possible 
to be. 

Even the people of Salem and Marblehead, above twenty miles 
off, had intelligence in time enough to march and met us on 
our return; they met us somewhere about Menotomy, but they 
lost a good many for their pains. Thus for a few trifling stores 
the Grenadiers and Light Infantry had a march of about fifty 
miles (going and returning) through an enemy's country; and in 
all human probability must every man have been cut off, if the 
Brigade had not fortunately come to their assistance; for when 
the Brigade joined us there were very few men had any ammuni- 



Past and Present 



189 



tion left, and so fatigued that we could not keep flanking parties 
out, so that we must soon have laid down our arms, or been 
picked off by the rebels at their pleasure. 

Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith, whose facts regarding the events 
of April 19, 1775, have been so generally used in preparing this 
sketch, closed his address before the Soldiers' Aid Society as 
follows : 

In the consternation and fear of that hour, the dead Minute- 
men were placed on a sled and drawn by a yoke of oxen over 
the bare ground to the 
graveyard. A single grave 
was hastily dug and the 
bodies were laid in it side 
by side, " head to point " with 
their clothes on just as thev 
fell. 

This story came to Mr. 
Smith from Col. Thomas 
Russell. When the mound 
(which till then had been 
marked by a single headstone 
still to be seen in the old cem- 
etery) was opened in 1848 to 
build a foundation for the 
monument which now marks 
the spot, ample proof of this 
hasty interment was found. 

To us who now glory in the achievements of that day, this 
statement seems passing strange, but Rev. Carleton A. Staples, 
who devoted a long period to careful study of everything pertain- 
ing to that eventful day, says: 

The real facts seem to be that our ancestors were astonished 
at their own temerity in thus attacking the King's troops, and in 
dread, if not in fear, awaited the sequel. Every eye-witness who 
wrote of the events of April 19, 1775, minimized the aggressive 
attitude of the Minute-men, and it is certain that the people 
generally hastened to put out of sight the dead and carefully 
concealed the wounded. 




MONUMENT IN OLD BURYING GROUND 
To memory of 19th of April victims 



190 Town of Arlington 

A history of the Battle of Lexington in the handwriting ot 
Rev. Jonas Clark of Lexington, now the property of Arlington 
Historical Society, is further proof of what Rev. Mr. Staples has 
said. 

Mr, Staples also calls attention to a fact not generally known, 
or at least not often alluded to. He says: 

It may not be generally understood in this country that a 
subscription for the families of those killed on the American side 
in Lexington and Concord battles, was taken up in London and 
sent to this country for their relief. The developments of the 
latest histories go to prove that the war of the American Revo- 
lution was waged not willingly by the English people, as a body, 
but by the reigning ministry. Our prisoners confined in prisons 
in England, always on their escape from jail, found many secret 
friends to further their escape across the channel to France; and 
before the close of hostilities, lai-ge contributions were made by 
the English people in their behalf as poor prisoners. 

A matter illustrating Parson Cooke's close and intimate con- 
nection with revolutionary leaders is found in the late J. Brooks 
Russell's reminiscences, referring to "John De Neufville, eminent 
merchant, formerly of Amsterdam," who died here Dec. 5, 1799, 
and was buried in the Parson Cooke tomb in Old Cemetery. At 
the time of his death De Neufville had his home with ^liss Cooke, 
"who then kept a genteel boarding house in her father's former 
parsonage." ]Mr. Russell says: 

The following letter has turned up amongst my old papers, 
and well illustrates the vicissitudes of life. It was written by 
Madam De Neufville, whose husband was, I presume, the emi- 
nent banker of that name in Amsterdam, Holland, who rendered 
efficient service to this country during the Revolution, in promot- 
ing negotiations for a loan from the Dutch capitalists. After 
the war he came to the United States, and established himself 
in some commercial capacity, but does not seem to have suc- 
ceeded, judging from his letter. He died, I think, in West Cam- 
bridge, where, at any rate, his gravestone was to be seen in the 
old burying ground when I was a boy. Not long after the estab- 
lishment of our government she petitioned Congress for relief, 
stating that her late husband's efforts in behalf of this country 
had reduced his family to great embarrassment. Alexander 



Past and Present 191 



Hamilton, in a letter to Washington, in allusion to her claim, 
said, "I do not know what the case admits of; but from some 
papers she showed me. it would seem she had pretensions to the 
kindness of this country." She afterward married the Spanish 
Consul-General to the United States. The letter was addressed 
to T. K. Jones, for many years the leading auctioneer in Boston. 

West Cambridge, 24th april, 1799. 
Sir : I take the liberty by deacon Frost to send you 8 looking glasses, 
which I request you will be so Kind to Sell for me, at your vendue's, Such 
is my present Situation, That I must part with every thing which will fetch 
some Cash, I wish you Sir to be friend me, you Know the value of Such 
goods better than I, my minister [Rev. Dr. Fiske] has purchased one of 
Them, and told me he conceives it as a bargain to have it for 20 dollars. 
I trust in your goodness to be friend a widow and a Stranger, please to 
remember me with my Compliments to Mrs. Jones, and I am sir your 
very humble servant, 

A. M. DE Neufville. 



It would make a chapter of exceeding interest could the careers 
of the men composing Capt. Benjamin Locke's company of 
^linute-men be traced through the succeeding years after the war 
of the Revolution. Mrs. James A. Bailey, a descendant on the 
maternal side, furnishes the following interesting details regarding 
Captain Locke: 

Capt. Benjamin Locke resided in the second house northwest 
of Forest street, which was built about 1730, being a part of 
the estate left by his grandfather, Francis Locke. He kept a 
store in the building joining the house on the upper side. The 
store later has had a story added, making the present two-story 
dwelling 1193 and 1195 ^lassachusetts avenue. 

Captain Locke also lived in the house now standing on No. 21 
Appleton street owned bv Benjamin Horace Peirce. He sold this 
house to the Baptist society for one hundred dollars in silver 
in 1781. In 1790 the society purchased "a spot five rods square," 
and erected a larger house of worship now standing and occupied 
as a dwelling house on the corner of Massachusetts avenue and 
Brattle street. Benjamin Locke, second son of Captain Locke, 
bought the old homestead back, and it has since remained in 
the family. 

In 1810 the new road to Lexington was opened and the Mid- 
dlesex turnpike built to Lowell. At the junction of these two 



192 Town of Arlington 

roads Benjamin Locke, son of Captain Locke, built a new store 
about 1816. He and his ekler brother William had formerly 
traded in the old store where his father had also been a trader. 
This new store seems to have been most successful, being pat- 
ronized by teamsters, drovers, and the stage coach which ran 
daily through the town connecting at Bedford with New Hamp- 
shire. This store was made into a double house by the heirs of 
Benjamin Locke, and is Nos. 11 and 13 Lowell street. 

Benjamin Locke held various town offices, and represented the 
town in the legislature, and was justice of the peace. He died 
in the house now standing on Appleton street in 1841, aged 
75 years. ' 

In 1776 a company was organized under command of Capt. 
William Adams and marched at the request of General Wash- 
ington to assist in taking possession of Dorchester Heights, the 
occupation of which forced the British to evacuate Boston. 
That company consisted of: William Adams, captain; Daniel 
Reed, lieutenant; Ethan Wetherbee, lieutenant; Samuel Locke, 
sergeant; William Cutter, sergeant; Jonathan Davis, ditto; 
Thomas Cutter, ditto; Abraham Locke, corporal; John Locke, 
ditto; Jonathan Perry, ditto; Thomas Cutter, private; John Win- 
ship, Edward Wilson, Abraham Hill, John Hill, Daniel Cutter, 
John Cutter, Jr., Ephraim Frost, Jr., Samuel Frost, Jr., Aaron 
Swan, William Hill, Joshua Kendall, William Butterfield, Jon- 
athan Robbins, Samuel Whittemore, 3d, George Swan, Daniel 
Paine, Amos Warren, Ammi Cutter, Jr., James Perry, Joseph 
Locke, Ebenezer Robbins, Levi Flint, Stephen Cutter, James 
Frost, Jeduthan Wellington, Isaac Warren, Miles Greenwood, 
Joseph Russell, William Winship, Jr., Gershom Cutter, 3d, James 
Locke, Stephen Robbins, Jr., Nathaniel Williams, John Fowle, 
Joseph Shaw, David Lamson, Samuel Swan, Josiah Hall. The 
term of service was probably five days. 

On the occasion of the dedication of a memorial to Solomon 
Peirce in the old cemetery on Pleasant street, Sept. 3, 1903, 
Prof. Arthur W. Peirce delivered an address in which his part in 
the events of April 19, 1775, is told as follows: 

Solomon Peirce, with several others living at a distance from 
Lexington common, had gone to his home when Captain Parker 



Past and Present 193 



dismissed his company for breakfast (they had been in Une since 
near midnight), there being no sign of the immediate approach 
of the British troops, and he was wounded in the ankle while 
getting over a wall hastening to join his company. When the 
battle was over he hobbled home. The wound was bandaged 
by his wife, using a bandanna handkerchief, and he returned to 
the highway in jNIenotomy to take part wdth the Minute-men in 
the hazardous fire that pursued the British in their disastrous 
retreat. That the wound was not a serious one we know, because 
he was on duty at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17th and 18th; 
but either on account of partial disability or as a matter of mili- 
tary detail, he was stationed to guard the roads from Cambridge, 
perhaps to give warning of any flank movement in that direction. 

Scattered through the "Genealogies" in Cutter's "History of 
Arlington," there are brief allusions to these men that cannot 
fail to be of interest here. For instance, he groups men bearing 
his name rendering service in the Revolution other than as mem- 
bers of Captain Locke's company of Minute-men: William and 
Thomas Cutter serving as sergeants; Daniel, John, Jr., Thomas, 
Ammi, Jr., Stephen, and Gershom, 3d, as privates. 

Solomon Bowman, lieutenant in Menotomy's company of 
Minute-men, was afterwards a commissioned officer in Colonel 
Gardner's Thirty-seventh (later Twenty-fifth) Regiment. 

Samuel Locke, brother of Captain Benjamin, had a commission 
as lieutenant, as did also Ensign Stephen Frost. Later the 
latter was promoted to captain, and was known as Captain 
Frost the remainder of his life. He was prominent in local 
affairs and his name appears in the list of Precinct officers. 

John Locke (aged 24; 5 ft. 7 in. — light) enlisted in Captain 
Fox's company in 1779 and served nine months. John Locke 
was two hundred and twenty-eight miles from home when he was 
discharged. Jonathan Locke was in Colonel Poore's regiment on 
North River from June, 1778, to March, 1779. 

Aaron and George Swan both served in the Revolution, and 
the former saw service in the French and Indian War. 

Sergeant, afterwards Lieut. Jeduthan Wellington, was of 
Menotomy's quota, and after independence was acknowledged 
he was appointed colonel of a militia regiment. 



194 Town of Arlington 

Capt. Samuel Whittemore. whose experiences on the 19th of 
April, 1775, have already been told, won his title by commanding 
a regiment of Dragoons in colonial times, and served on impor- 
tant committees prior to and during the struggle for American 
independence. 

The last survivor of the Revolution in Arlington was Thomas 
Hill, who died here July S, 1851, aged eighty-nine years, and 
whose gravestone, bearing an appropriate epitaph, is to be 
found in the old burying ground on Pleasant street. His father 
was a soldier in the French War and he also served in the 
Revolution. 

At least five of the buildings standing on the line of the street 
through which the British marched on the way to Concord and 
hurried in their retreat to a place of safety in Boston, are stand- 
ing today, but one (the Russell House) is not now in a place 
to be noted by the passer-by. The church building, though still 
in existence, is removed from its ancient site to Pleasant street, 
and is commonly spoken of as the Charles 0. Gage estate. 

But the old "Tufts Tavern" opposite Mount ^'ernon street, 
is almost as conspicuous among its surroundings as at any 
time in its history. 

The date of the erection of this building is unknown even to 
the family that owned it long before the Revolution, as Mrs. 
Almira T. Whittemore, who made the researches, is obliged to 
acknowledge. All she was able to ascertain was that her ances- 
tor, James Cutler, was an innkeeper here in 1734, that the busi- 
ness descended to his son William, who was a lieutenant in the 
Menotomy Train Band in 1766. This William Cutler's daughter, 
Rebecca, married John Tufts of Medford, and he was proprietor 
on the memorable 19th of April, 1775, and the "Inn" had 
become "Tufts Tavern." In the Arlington Advocate of April 
17, 1896, Mrs. Whittemore had a communication which appro- 
priately has a place here : 

During the war of the Revolution many incidents occurred 
which have been remembered by the participants in that impor- 
tant period of our country's history. These incidents have been 
related to their children and as the 19th of April comes around 



Past and Present 195 



we refer to them in memory. The writer recalls the following 
story as told to her by her grandmother, whose mother was 
Mrs. R. Cutler, the heroine of the event : On the night of 
April 18, 1775, a woman was sitting np with a sick child. 
A colored slave, Dinah, who was with her, heard a noise and 
with some timidity she pulled aside the curtain and exclaimed, 
"Oh, Missus, the yard is full of Reg'lars!" The woman said, 
"Hush, Dinah, it is no such thing," .but she quickly looked and 
sure enough the "Red Coats" were there with their ba3^onets 
glistening in the moonlight. Tiie woman instantly put the 
candle into the closet, told Dinah to keep perfectly still and 
perhaps they would go away. The people knew the English 
were in the harbor — were expecting them to land — so this 
woman was somewhat prepared for the event. They marched 
away; then she acquainted her husband with the news. He 
says, "Where's ni}^ gun? They have gone to the barn after my 
big white horse." Fortunately, as my informant said, the gun 
was lent to a neighbor to go to a turkey shooting, otherwise he 
would have fired upon them and perhaps ^lenotoni}^, as this 
town w^as then called, might have been the " Battle-Field." On 
the following morning, the nineteenth, between the hours of 
four and five, a British officer came riding along, stopped at this 
house, which was a tavern, and asked for a drink of water. The 
innkeeper accosted him, saying, "You are taking an early ride, 
sir." The officer replied, "You had better go to bed and get 
your sleep while you can." When daylight dawned upon these 
people they saw their danger. The women and children fled to 
the woods. The men mustered all their old shot guns and pre- 
pared to meet the enemy. During the day the regulars called 
at this tavern, pierced the mirror with their bayonets, gathered 
the linen from a chest of drawers, placed it in the middle of a 
room and set it on fire. An old slave. Cuff, saw it from his 
hiding place and soon extinguished the flames. 

One of the more notable and interesting houses standing in 
IMenotomy at this time was the Adams house, torn down in 1845 
to make room for the steam railroad. It had been erected about 
one hundred years before by the ancestor of Capt. William Adams, 
who occupied it in 1775. Governor Isaac Hill, of New Hamp- 
shire, in describing a visit to Arlington in 1847, had the follow- 
ing in reference to this old house: 

At the time of the first spilling of blood in the Revolution 
at Lexington, some object of annoyance was presented by this 



196 Town of Arlington 

house to the passing British army, causing it to be riddled with 
bullets. Upon that part of the house which remains, the bullet 
holes through the outside clapboards may yet be seen. The 
house was built of wood, bricked up between the inside and out- 
side finishing. In that part of it torn down last year, there 
were taken out, lodged in the bricks, many musket bullets dis- 
charged in the sharp conflict that took place there with the 
British when retreating back from Concord towards Boston. . . . 
It was in the best style of building two centuries ago. It 
had its fancy-work coving directly lielow the roofing, its front 
door capping was an imitation of the gingerbread Corinthian 
stjde. Some sticks of that part of the frame were lying about; 
these sticks being marked with numeral figures, indicating the 
proper point of entrance for each joist or beam. 

During the troublous and exciting times preceding the War 
of 1812-14, the West Cambridge Light Infantry was organized 
and stood ready for active service. When the time came that 
it was feared that the British might select Boston as a place 
of attack, an "Exempt Company,'' made up of men whose age 
exempted them from military service, was formed. Capt. David 
Hill was placed in command, William S. Brooks acted as orderly 
sergeant. Many members were veterans who had fought at 
Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. That they were not 
called into active service detracts nothing from the honor we 
should accord their action. "They serve who only stand and 
wait." 

It was in this war that Col. Thomas Russell acquired his title, 
having command of a regiment of cavalry. 

J. Brooks Russell, who has been so frequently c^uoted, says in 
his reminiscences, that "Capt. Ebenezer Thompson of the Ninth 
United States Infantry in the War of 1812 enlisted about a dozen 
men in Arlington (Stephen Frost, John Cutter, Barton Swan, 

Wheeler and others) to ser\-e under him. of whom only 

three or four lived to return. 

In 1901 ^Ir. William R. Cutter furnished the following cor- 
respondence to Arlington Advocate: 

Col. Ebenezer Thompson, a native of Woburn, born Nov. 5. 
1767, who was visited by a correspondent of the Woburn Journal 
in 1857 — see issue of Journal for Julv 11, 1857 — related that he 



Past and Present 197 



cried, when, as a boy nine years old and living at Woburn, he 
heard the roaring of the cannon on the morning of the fight of 
June 17, 1775. The old man stated that he roared lustily because 
his mother forbid his taking the colt to ride to ''the hill" where 
his father was. In 1857 Colonel Thompson was a resident of 
Verona, Oneida County, N. Y. 

Colonel Thompson in his prime was the soldierly captain of 
the ''Menotomy Light Horse/' who, dressed in their red coats 
and buff breeches buckled at the knee, were a crack company 
of the local cavalr}' regiment of this section. Later, in the War of 
1812, he was a captain in the Ninth Regiment of United States 
Lifantr}'. 

He related the following incident of the battle of April 19, 
1775. Cuff Cartwright or De Carteret, a colored man, was the 
slave of Master William Whittemore, a graduate of Harvard 
College and a local school teacher, who had married a member 
of the De Carteret family. Cuff was on the liill with the Menot- 
omy militia, of which Solomon Bowman was lieutenant, and on 
the opening of the fight at that point, which was evidenth' near 
the house of Jason Russell at Arlington, the negro acted cowardly, 
and in liis alarm turned to run down the liill. But the lieutenant 
threatened to shoot liim with a horse pistol, and pricked him in 
the leg with the point of his sword. This brought Cuff to his 
senses, and the negro "about facing" fought through the contest, 
as the colonel said, like a wounded elephant, making two "cuss'd 
Britishers" bite the dust. Cuff continued in the army and after- 
ward was taken prisoner by the British. While acting as waiter 
to a field officer he was ordered to take two fine horses to water 
at a stream running between the camps of the two armies, and 
instead of returning to the British camp, forded the stream under 
a shower of bullets, and reported himself and two horses in 
sound condition to the officer of the Continentals, bj'^ whom he 
was liberally rewarded. 

Col. Ebenezer Thompson died Dec. 23. 1860, in his ninety- 
fourth year. Unlike most of liis ancestors, he chose to be a 
mechanic. He was apprenticed for seven years to Amos Warren, 
to learn the trade of a leather worker. Before 179-4 he had 
settled in ^Tenotomy, where he carried on the manufacture of 
fishermen's boots. He acquired a good estate and a character 
for integrity. He was an officer of the Hiram Lodge of Free 
Masons. 

Soon after the declaration of war, on June 18, 1812, he received, 
unasked, from the President of the L'nited States, the appoint- 
ment of captain, to take rank from Juh' 6, 1812, in the Xinth 



198 Town of Arlington 

Regiment, United States Infantry, and was at once ordered to 
Boston to open a rendezvous there and at other places for the 
enhstment of recruits, a service in which he was ver}' successful. 
In the spring of 1813 he was ordered to proceed to Sackett's 
Harbor, in charge of some hundreds of recruits, to he mustered 
into the different regiments. HaA'ing reported his command to 
the commanding officer at the harbor, he was ordered to join 
his regiment there in station. At this time a malignant fever 
and dysentery prevailed among the troops. He was attacked 
with these diseases most violently and his life was despaired of 
for several weeks. He, however, recovered sufficiently as to be 
able to be removed home. The effects of the sickness were such 
as to render him unfit for field service, and he tendered his resig- 
nation, which was accepted, and was honorably discharged from 
the Army in 1814. 

He was the father of Ebenezer Riuuford Thompson, who was 
born in the present town of Arlington on iMarch 5, 1795, and 
taught the public school in West Cambridge during the winter 
of 1814-15. The son died in Dunkirk, N. Y., Oct. 11, 1880, in 
his eight3"-sixth year. 

Like every other township, Arlington has a political as well 
as a civil, ecclesiastical, and military history, but into this field 
the local historian may not enter beyond certain narrow limits, 
and those confined to a more or less distant past. It so chances, 
however, that without some reference to matters political the 
general reader will have no clear understanding of the spirit 
moving in this community when its young men were summoned 
to maintain the integrity of the Union ]:)y the proclamation of 
President Lincoln in April, 1861. 

The desire to secure separation from Cambridge and obtain 
township rights and privileges by a somewhat rapidly growing 
community, doubtless had behind it something political. Cam- 
bridge was " Federal " in politics, — that is, strongly favored 
England in her war with France, while Menotomy was warmly 
on the other side, and when the French Republic was set up, 
the event was celebrated here. In his historical sketch Judge 
Parmenter says : 

When the French Republic was established there were vari- 
ous celebrations of the event among Republicans in and about 



Past and Present 199 



Boston. In iMenotomy, instead of the usual civic feast, the 
women held a celebration of their own. About fiftj' of them 
met one Thursday afternoon in February, 1793, at the house of 
Mrs. Wellington (probably Mrs. Jeduthan) who had ornamented 
her rooms with various kinds of evergreens, to congratulate one 
another upon the great events in France. With caps adorned 
with the French national cockade of liberty, they sat down to a 
bancjuet consisting of coffee, wine, and civic cake, and further 
celebrated with music, vocal and instrumental; until, as the 
reporter gallantl}^ expresses it, "the joyful scene concluded with 
that harmony, civility, and politeness which exalt their sex so 
far above the other." Civic cake, which was used at the festivals 
of the French sympathizers, differed from other cake in having 
the words ''Liberty and Equality'' stamped upon it. That such 
a celebration should have taken place in a parish like Menotomy, 
among such sober and practical people as lived here, shows with 
peculiar vividness the intensity of popular feeling. The "Reign 
of Terror" followed and we hear nothing more of civic cake and 
cockades of liberty here. 

At the first election after the town was incorporated, how- 
ever, the Federal candidate received 33 votes, while his Re- 
publican opponent had 147. Samuel Butterfield was the first 
representative to the General Court after the town was incorpo- 
rated, serving three years in succession. Col. Thomas Russell 
was next chosen, and he served continuously until 1827. When 
subsequently party names of Whig and Democrat were adopted, 
this town was found in the Democratic column, and continued 
to be with the minority representation in the state legislature 
until 1848, when the Whigs gained the ascendency. In 1852 
the Democrats won. The Free Soil party had shown considerable 
strength in these intervening years and when, in 1856, the new 
Republican party came into existence with John C. Fremont as 
its candidate, the vote stood at the fall election, Republican, 186; 
Whig, 147; Democrat, 130. 

In the transition above noted is to be traced the growing oppo- 
sition to the trend of a great political party in the direction of 
becoming subservient to the gigantic oligarchy ruling in the 
southern states, and this opposition culminated in the election 
of Abraham Lincoln in the fall of 1860. At that election the 



200 Town of Arlington 

vote of Arlington was Lincoln, 183; Douglas, 119; Bell, 84; Breck- 
enridge, 2. The next year the Civil War began. 

Arlington's part in this great contest for the preservation of 
what the former generations had won, was more than honorable. 
But by an unfortunate train of circumstances this town cannot 
point to a single company in all the regiments recruited in this 
state to be mustered into the United States service from the 
first call in 1861 to the close of the war in 1865, though her quota 
Avas always promptly filled and during those four trying years 
had in active service a total of three hundred and twenty men. 
We know that Arlington raised promptly and at large expense a 
company of infantry, fully officered by men residing here; but 
among the enlisted men making up that company as mustered 
were many who belonged elsewhere. Even this company was 
attached to a New York regiment, the Fortieth New York or 
"Mozart" Regiment as it was always designated. 

When Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was fired upon by 
people in revolt on that not to be forgotten April 13, 1861, poli- 
tical differences which had separated the citizens of Arlington 
on sharply defined lines six months before, vanished in an 
instant, and when the following day President Lincoln's procla- 
mation calling for seventy-five thousand soldier volunteers to 
defend the National Capital and the Nation's honor was read, 
no community responded more quickly, to the extent of its 
ability, than this historic old town. 

Sunday evening, April 21, a joint public meeting of citizens of 
Arlington and Belmont was held in Town Hall. The hall was 
crowded, the feelings of those present found expression in a 
preamble and resolution freighted with the spirit of unpartisan- 
ship and patriotism worthy the men and the occasion. 

The meeting also voted to recommend that the town pay a 
bounty of ten dollars per man; that the married men, or those 
having dependants, be paid twelve dollars per month during the 
three months' service called for by President Lincoln; that single 
men be paid six dollars per month; that all unexpended balance 
beyond cost of equipping proposed company be at the disposal 
of selectmen of Arlington and Belmont for the benefit of the 



Past and Present 201 



soldiers or their families of said towns. The town officially 
indorsed the action of this meeting and Albert S. Ingalls, a young 
lawyer coming to Arlington from Fitchburg in 1859, at once 
set about forming a company of infantry, and in a few daj-s he 
was able to report the enrolling of eighty-two men. 

With uniforms and arms supplied out of funds provided, under 
Captain Ingalls, and a full list of commissioned and non-commis- 
sioned officers, the company was brought to a fair degree of 
efficiency in the use of arms and in company drill. 

Then followed that period of vexatious dela3^s in receiving 
orders to be mustered in, which so many other towns in the state 
experienced between April and July of that year. Massachusetts 
had, all unwittingly perhaps, but thoroughly, prepared for this 
emergency in the nation's life, and when President Lincoln's call 
came to Governor Andrew, there were ready for instant service 
(fully equipped even to overcoats and blankets) well organized 
regiments enough to fill her quota, and was the only state in 
the Union whose militia was ready for active service in the field 
as soldiers. 

The consequence was that isolated companies like that at 
Woburn as well as in Arlington, could not be mustered for ser- 
vice until further orders from Washington. Restless under this 
delay, the company went to New York in a body, expecting to 
join a regiment forming at Brooklyn (the quota of New York 
not being filled), but failing to make satisfactory arrangements 
the compan}^ returned. 

While in New York Captain Ingalls had been assured a wel- 
come with his men at Yonkers, N. Y., where the famous Mozart 
Regiment was forming under the personal encouragement of 
]\Iayor Fernando Wood, and he and his officers, with thirty-two 
men, returned at once and joined that regiment. It was enrolled 
June 27, 1861, left New York for the seat of war July 4, 1861, 
and for three years gave a good account of itself in all the battles 
and movements of the Army of the Potomac of which it became 
a part. 

In the voluminous reports of our fellow townsman, Gen. 
William Schouler, in his capacity as adjutant-general of the 



202 Town of Arlington 

state, in numerous regimental histories, in the records of the 
United States War Department still in course of publication, 
on our soldiers' monument, in the records of Francis Gould 
Post 36, G. A. R., are to be found any and all material facts for 
the seeker of information along specific lines in making up the 
records of men who were the first to respond and so well repre- 
sented the patriotism and valor of this historic town for four long 
years. 

Interesting as this might prove, it does not seem wise to 
attempt going into those details in this connection, for Arlington 
had men in fifty-four different Massachusetts regiments (cavahy 
and infantry), batteries, or special arms of the service, besides a 
considerable number in the United States Navy, and to publish 
the story of one or even mention the name of one and not of all , 
would be unfair discrimination that of all things ought to be 
avoided. 

Suffice it to say that in spite of the failure of that first com- 
pany to secure a place among those responding to the first call, 
Arlington had soldiers in the battle of Bull Rim and in every 
considerable engagement until the final surrender at Appomattox. 
Of that company responding to Lincoln's first proclamation, 
thirty-two went into service later. When the second call came, 
just after the battle of Bull Run, fifty-four men were promptly 
provided for a number of regiments then forming or at the front. 
In meeting the demand made in December of 1862, twenty-six 
men were supplied. When the draft came in 1863 the ten men 
drawn paid their $300 each. In 1864 the full number called for 
(forty-six) was sent to the front. The total is two hundred and 
sixty. And in addition to all this, there stands credited to 
the town at the adjutant-general's office, sixty men not counted 
by the town, making a total of three hundred and twenty men. 
A record of which all may be proud. To secure these men the 
town paid from its treasury from money raised by taxation and 
turned over to it by individuals, or amounts collected by public 
subscriptions and a few other sources, a total of $75,372.99. And 
not this alone. For forty years the town has scrupulously ful- 
filled all its promises to care for the disabled comrades or those 



Past and Present 203 



dependent on them, always stretching the legal bounds that its 
benefaction might reach the deserving and needy if such were a 
possibility. 

The week after Captain Ingalls left town in June, 1861, with 
his thirty-two men, preparation to meet future calls for soldiers 
was made by the formation of a "Drill Club," which the consti- 
tution of the club says, "shall not consist of more than seventy- 
five members." The officers chosen were: captain, William E. 
Parmenter ; first lieutenant, James Fred Clark ; second lieu- 
tenant, William T. Dupee; third lieutenant, James Durgin; fourth 
lieutenant, Charles B. Fessenden ; clerk and treasurer, Nehemiah 
^I. Fessenden. 

Arms were provided at the cost of the members, frequent drills 
were maintained, and if half the stories told of these meetings 
are true, the dark pall hanging over the nation could not more 
than dampen the flow of young animal spirit. The last entry 
in the record book of the Drill Club is dated Jan. 14, 1862, but 
other memoranda left by secretary Nehemiah M. Fessenden, in 
addition to the record and roll-call ])Ook, intlicate that its active 
life covered nearly a year. If any surprise be felt that its career 
should have been so comparatively brief, the suggestion is made 
that the list of members be gone over in the presence of any now 
living who served in Arlington's several quotas. As name after 
name will have to be checked off as "gone to war," it will be 
seen the Drill Club had served a purpose — 5^es, a grand purpose — 
in its brief life. The Drill Club became a recruiting station. 

Of the total sum expended during the years 1861-65 b}^ this 
town, the Ladies' Aid Society furnished $4314.26. It was com- 
posed of ladies of the town, regardless of denomination, banded 
together for the preparation and transmission to the scene of 
active operations by the Army, hospital supplies and articles 
useful to the wounded or disabled. It was a "Christian Com- 
mission" on a small scale and was one of the bright features of a 
dark and trying time it is pleasant to recall. In this same spirit 
of helpfulness Dr. Richard L. Hodgdon and Dr. Jonas C. Harris, 
the physicians of the town, tendered their aid to the families of 
soldiers during their absence, and when the call came from the 



204 Town of Arlington 

bloody field of Gettysburg, the latter joined the group of physi- 
cians who hurried to the front to render aid to the overtaxed 
army surgeons. Not to be outdone in this self-sacrifice, the 
pastor of First Parish Church, Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith, went 
also to the front and was himself a victim of the war. dying 
May 20, 1865, from the fever contracted while ministering to the 
soldiers in the hospital at Norfolk, \ii. 

The return of that great army of a million of men who had 
won the peace following the surrender at Appomattox, to the 
walks of civil life, was then and is now the wonder and admiration 
of all who consider its significance. Before any great proportion 
of these men had found places in civil life with remunerative 
employment, a company of ex-soldiers in a western state com- 
bined for mutual helpfulness and to extend aid to needy com- 
rades, and out of that action has developed what tlie world 
now knows as the Grand Army of the Republic. It was not until 
several years later that efforts to form a G. A. R. Post in Arlington 
were successful. 

The town was small, the eligibles who were native born or had 
citizenship here in 1865-75 were not numerous, newcomers who 
were G. A. R. men preferred to retain membership where they 
had been mustered rather than unite in forming a new Post. The 
consequence was that Post 36, named for Lieut. Francis Gould 
(who was of that original company enlisting in Arlington in 
April, 1861) was not instituted until :\Iay 26, 1881. 

May 26, 1906, was celebrated the twenty-fifth anni^•ersary of 
this event. From the historical sketch read on that occasion 
by Past-Commander Charles S. Parker, a synopsis is here given 
instead of inserting the same in the section devoted to societies 
and organizations. The facts presented are as follows : 

Post 36 is a graft upon the G. A. R. tree, having taken the 
number of the Amherst Post, organized in 1867, but going out of 
existence some years later. This connection with Massachusetts 
Department in 1881 had been preceded by a Veteran Association, 
which for three years previous to that date had attended to the 
duties incident to Memorial Day. 



Past and Present 



205 



The difficulties encountered in organizing a Post were outlined, 
and credit given to Department officers and comrades for per- 
sistence which has given to Arlington one of the best Posts in 
the Massachusetts Department. 

The first meeting place was in "Reynolds Hall," next to 
Savings Bank Building. Then ^lenotomy Hall was hired; from 
there quarters were removed to Odd Fellows Hall. Shattuck's 
Hall was next leased and fitted up as G. A. R. Hall. The efforts 
to secure a proper building were alluded to, the steps by which 
the desired result Avas reached were traced and credit given to 
generous benefactors, whose help had been indispensable. The 
Post now numbers eighty-two, fully up to high-water mark, 
thougli there have been thirty-nine deaths. Its relief fund is 
$1,150.70; it has given .$4,193.09 in charity, and. seen to it that 
sick comrades have evidence of sympathy and regard. When 
Memorial Day ol^servance began here, there were twenty graves 
of comrades to decorate. The number has increased rapidly, 
imtil this year tliere are* one hundretl and sixt3'-five within the 
limits of Arlington. 

Full credit was accorded Women's Relief Corps, No. 4.3, and 
^'Building Fund As- 
sociation," for in- 
dispensable help, and 
the story of wiping 
out the debt on 
Grand Army Hall 
by the help of E. 
Nelson Blake was 
given due promi- 
nence. In closing. 
the speaker said : 

This is a sum- 
mary of the past 

twenty-five years and the incidents immediately preceding the 
formation of Post 36. The record is an honorable one; what 
we possess in our G. A. R. Hall is an occasion for satisfaction 
if not of pride. But for one, 1 feel there are higher occasions 




GRAND ARMY HALL 



206 Town of Arlington 

for gratification than these. When jNIemorial Day observance 
was inaugurated here, no spots in town were so signally uncared 
for as were the burying ground and cemetery. Today they 
are all that scrupulous care and judicious expenditure can achieve. 
Not so long ago, my comrades, it was rare to see Old Glory 
floating to the breeze except on holidays. Today, on every 
school-day, we see it floating on our school buildings and know 
it has a place in the hearts of the children who daily salute it» 
This building will decay, we ere long shall join the great 
majority and be forgotten, but the moral uplift will remain, 
and the impress made on the minds of childhood will endure 
like the everlasting hills. 

It will be remembered that the meeting of Arlington and Bel- 
mont citizens on - April 21, 1861, provided for the disposal of 
any balance remaining out of the $10,000 to be raised to equip 
the military company that Captain Ingalls subsequently gath- 
ered. Arlington's share in that balance was $600, and for this 
amount a town note was made, bearing the signatures of the 
selectmen. The next year, April 26, 1862, Washington J. Lane, 
as chairman of the selectmen, deposited in Arlington Five Cents 
Savings Bank $78.66, paid to him by the town treasurer as 
interest on that note. The original sum was drawn on from 
time to time to meet cases of need until it was reduced to $349.85, 
but the interest was regularly paid, and in 1888 amounted to 
$892.07. In recent years the calls on this fund (it has always 
been held to relieve special cases) have been increasingly fre- 
quent, so that in 1906 the amount on deposit in the Savings 
Bank to the credit of the fund was only $108.60. There is, 
however, another fund, known as the "Citizens' Soldiers' Fund," 
accruing from a balance of money contributed by citizens to 
aid enlistments, amounting to $375.89, which is also subject to 
draft for the emergencies alluded to. 

The money received from the sale of arms and equipments 
used by "Arlington Drill Club" was deposited in Arlington 
Savings Bank, where it remained until interest and principal 
amounted to $739.50. A proposition to turn this over to the 
Charity Fund of Post 36 met with hearty approval on the part 
of surviving members of the Drill Club, whose formation and 



Past and Present 207 



purpose has ali-eady been told, and after much time spent in 
locating out-of-town members, individual assignments of all 
rights were made to !\Iessrs. James A. Harden, George D. Tufts, 
William A. Clark, and then under guidance of the late Judge 
William E. Parmenter, the captain, all necessary legal steps 
were taken to relieve the heirs of the late Nehemiah Fessenden 
of responsibility, and the Savings Bank transferred the amount 
above named from its place of mere accumulation to active 
charities under the guidance of comrades, many of wliom were 
original contributors to it. * 

Thus these several unexpended balances deposited and left 
to accumulate in the Savings Bank became the means of doing 
great good in times of need, and as now placed will go on for 
years to come relieving necessities that might not otherwise 
be met without some measure of shame attaching. War may 
be, yes is, deserving the harshest name ever given to it; but in 
these later years its horrors have often been relieved by the 
generous provision of the nation and the state and local bene- 
factions such as are mentioned in this closing section of the record 
of Arlington's experiences in times of war. 

* There were three widows of members of the Drill Club (two whose 
husbands had ser^'ed in the war and were members of Post 36) and each 
was given the share to which the committee decided they were entitled. 



208 



Town of Arlington 




g>^Vb\NC>TON Cnm/u:, 




SECTION FIVE 



ARLINGTON AND HER CHURCHES 



1734-1907 



THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL PARISH IN 
ARLINGTON 

By Frederic Gill, Minister 

THE Congregational order of religious administration was, by 
ecclesiastical law, made part of the original constitution of 
New England, each town or precinct being required to support a 
church or parish organization. Every citizen's tax bill included 
a religious tax. paid for the support of a Congregational church. 
"The Second" or "The North- West Parish of Cambridge," as 
this parish was at first known, was thus an established church, 
whose history was, for the first seventy-five years of its exist- 
ence, mainly one with the history of the precinct. This history 
having already been told in this book, need not be repeated 
here. Only a few things, more particularly pertaining to the 
church, will be mentioned. The first meetinghouse, erected in 
1734, was small and plain, had no means of heating, and prob- 
ably contained no hymn books. But it was not until 1739 that 
a minister was secured, the intervening year being a time of 
much hardship, during which the new parish had a good friend 
in the Rev. John Hancock, the venerable minister of Lexington. 
Finally, Mr. Samuel Cooke was secured as minister, and on Sept. 
9, 1739, a church society, or religious organization distinct from 
the precinct or parish, was formed. An elaborate document, 
including a covenant and a creed, was drawn up, and signed by 
thirty men and fifty-three women. 

209 



210 Town of Arlington 

Mr. Cooke was a man of weight and influence in the com- 
munity, who was often called upon to preach on notable occa- 
sions in the eastern part of Massachusetts. After his death in 
1783, the church passed through a period of distress lasting 
several years. The people had been impoverished by the long 
revolutionary struggle, and the secession of the Baptists had 
weakened the church. It was very small and poor, much 
involved in debt, and seemed likely to break up. 

Not until 1787 was a minister settled, ^Ir. Thaddeus Fiske 
beginning to preach then. Under his leadership the church soon 
gathered new strength, and in 1804 was able to build a new 
meetinghouse. 

With the incorporation of the precinct as a town in 1807 the 
church became known as the First Parish in West Cambridge. 
At the same time it seems to have ceased to be the town 
church. 

At this time the church had no organ, the violin, bass viol, 
flute, and French horn being still in use. The choir was recruited 
from the "West Cambridge :\Iusical Society." In 1808 (?) the 
building was struck by lightning, which stripped a clapboard 
off the house, giving a grotesque appearance. Later a gale took 
off about a third of the roof, and dropped it in the road. In 1820 
the first provision was made for the heating of the church, a 
stove and funnel being put up "for the comfort and convenience 
of the people." 

Dr. Fiske was decidedly conservative in spirit. He strongly 
opposed attempts at Sunday-School work, and refused the use 
of the church for such a purpose. But two determined women, 
Eliza Bradshaw and Eliza Tufts, gathered the children in the 
vestibule and began work. When the Unitarian or Liberal 
Christian movement gathered headway in the Congregational 
churches, Dr. Fiske held to the old ways, but was not able to 
keep his parishioners with him, for they followed the new move- 
ment. This difference had much to do with his resignation in 
1828. In accepting it, the parish recorded its due sense of his 
faithful services during a pastorate of forty years, and testified 
to his "fair" character as a man and a Christian. 



Past and Present 211 



The feeling on both sides was not entirely that of good will, 
for though an elaborate farewell sermon was not allowed to 
be preached, it was printed. Fourteen years later, when the 
Orthodox Church was formed, he became one of its first mem- 
bers. In 1809, on the twenty-first anniversary of his settle- 
ment, he preached from Job xvi, 22, ''When a few years are 
come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return." He, 
however, outlived most of those who heard the sermon. At 
his death in 1855, at the age of ninety-three, he was the oldest 
clerg3^man in the state. 

The ordination of Mr. Frederic H. Hedge on May 20, 1829, 
was an elaborate affair. He was examined by a council which 
met at the hotel. Afterwards a procession, headed by a brass 
band, marched to the church. His installation marked the 
change of the church to Unitarianism. It was now called the 
"First Congregational Parish." But many of the people desired 
to settle a Universalist minister, and the consequent division 
weakened the church for some years, and had much to do with 
^Ir. Hedge's resignation in 1835. Later in life he attained emi- 
nence, and exerted great influence upon religious thought in 
New England. 

On ^larch 13, 1835, ^Ir. David Damon was installed as minister, 
taking charge of an enfeebled church, numbering but forty com- 
municants. His faithful work speedily built it up again. He 
was a man of plain good sense, thoroughly in earnest, who 
preached close, practical, and searching sermons, well illustrated 
from actual life. He dedicated the new Mount Pleasant Ceme- 
tery in 1843, and spoke of the uncertainty of life. A few days 
later, while conducting a funeral service at Reading, he was 
stricken with apoplexy, and died within twenty-four hours, just 
after Harvard College had conferred upon him the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity. His body was the first to be buried in the 
new cemetery. The church erected a monument at his grave. 

The Universalists withdrew from the parish in 1840. The 
Unitarians then took down the meetinghouse, and erected a 
new one. The organ put in it was the first ever used in this 
church. The vestry was called Parish Hall, and the Parish 



212 Town of Arlington 



Committee were authorized to let it to the town for holding 
meetings. 

Late in 1843, the Rev. William Ware became minister. 
Shortly after, a new covenant was adopted, which made the sole 
condition of membership to be "a profession of faith in Jesus 
Christ." Mr. Ware was in poor health and his pastorate was 
brief, covering less than two years. He was editor of the Chris- 
tian Examiner for some time, and by his brilliant historical 
romances "Zenobia," "Aurelian," and "Julian," which are still 
well known and much read, he achieved fame in literature. 

The next pastorate, that of the Rev. James Francis Brown, 
was also short, lasting about five years. In 1849 the women 
formed themselves into a society for social, religious, and phil- 
anthropic purposes, known as the Social Circle. In the first 
years of its existence it gave a melodeon to the Sunday School^ 
and furnished and carpeted the vestry. Then it assisted in the 
purchase of a new organ for the church. Meetings were held in 
the evenings at the houses of the members, and several men 
became honorary members by paying a fee of one dollar. In 
1857 the Circle gave three pieces of communion silver to the 
church. When the Baptists were building a new church in 1853, 
the parish gave up its afternoon service in order that the Baptists 
might use the building. 

Mr. Samuel Abbot Smith was ordained in 1854. On the first 
day of 1856, the meetinghouse was burned down. Just a year 
after that the new building was dedicated, the service being 
conducted by all the local ministers. The work of erecting this 
building was carried on under some difficulty as a number of 
the people, living in what is now Belmont, had seceded after 
the fire to form the Unitarian church there. In April, 1865, 
Mr. Smith accepted an appointment from the American Unitarian 
Association to work among the army at Norfolk, Virginia, for 
two months. He was taken ill at Richmond, and came home 
only to die. He was greatly beloved by all in his life, and deeply 
mourned at his death. The Sunday School erected a monument 
at his grave in'the old burying ground, with the inscription, "He 
went about doing good." 



Past and Present 213 



It was in the fifties that the church became interested in the 
"Children's Mission." The Sunday School gave money, while 
the girls made garments and quilts, and the Social Circle helped 
in other ways. During the Civil War the church was conspic- 
uous in work for the soldiers at the front, and their families at 
home, men and women giving generously of their time and 
means. 

All this time there was no provision for social gatherings in 
the church. In 1868 the Social Circle converted the vacant 
room in the basement into a thoroughly equipped kitchen and 
a well-furnished parlor. The Rev. Charles C. Salter was minister 
from 1866 to 1869, when he was succeeded by the Rev. George 
W. Cutter. A great windstorm on the night of August 22, 
1871, blew over the spire of the church. It was rebuilt the next 
year. From 1878 to 1881 the Rev. William Joseph Parrot was 
minister, his successor being the Rev. John Perkins Forbes. 
Extensive alterations and improvements were made in the build- 
ing in 1882, costing over four thousand dollars. Mr. Forbes's 
ministry was a time of much growth in the church. He resigned 
in 1887, when the Rev. Augustus .Mendon Lord was installed. 
The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the gathering of the 
chvu-ch society was celebrated in 1889, the occasion arousing 
much interest and being very successful. Under Mr. Lord's 
leadership the Unitarian Club was organized and its meetings 
were a prominent element in the life of the church. In 1890 
funds were raised for the erection of a parish house for Svmday 
School and social purposes, but as it was decided to be unwise 
to put another building on the church green, the money was 
devoted to the purchase of a new organ. ^Ir. Lord resigned in 
1890, and the pulpit remained vacant until the settlement of 
Frederic Gill early in 1892. In the summer of 1893 the spire 
was found to be in bad condition, and was at once rebuilt. A 
great staging was erected, reaching to the weather vane, which 
gave the spire something of the appearance of a Chinese pagoda 
for some weeks. Considerable repairs were made to the building, 
and the interior was redecorated in the summer of 1889. 

A second organization of the women had been made in 1884, 



214 Tow7i of Aiiiiigton 

this being a local branch of the National Alliance of Unitarian 
and Other Christian Women. Nine years later, this society and 
the Social Circle were merged into one, under the name of the 
Social Alliance. The Sunday School prospered with the pros- 
perous church. It has enlisted many prominent m.en and women 
in its service. On February 19, 1899, the congregation, after 
much consideration, adopted a new Covenant or Bond of Union, 
as follows: 

We, members of the First Congregational Church in Arling- 
ton, rejoicing in our Christian heritage, greatly honoring the 
fathers, who, amid much difficulty founded this church in the 
years from 1733 to 1739, and holding the Congregational polity 
they bequeathed to us, do now declare: — • 

This church accepts the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with his 
teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to men. 
In this spirit we join for the worship of God and the service of men, to pro- 
mote free, spiritual religion in the world ; and we invite to our fellowship all 
who are in sympathy with our purpose. 

About the same time a circulating library of Unitarian books 
was established by the young people. In the autumn of 1894 
a notable series of Sunday evening services was held, when the 
various ministers of the town, in response to an invitation from 
Mr. Gill, delivered addresses upon their several denominations. 
These addresses aroused great interest. Another important 
event was a "Century Watch Night Service" on the night of 
Dec. 31, 1900. Every Protestant minister in Arlington took 
part, a large volunteer chorus furnishing music. The seventy- 
fifth anniversary of the settlement of the first Unitarian minister 
of the church was celebrated on Sunday, Dec. 6, 1903, and the 
following Wednesday. 

Limits of space quite forbid adequate mention of the men and 
the women who have made the church and done its work during 
the last century. The living must be entirely omitted: record 
can be made of only a few of the names of those who have gone. 
Dr. Timothy Wellington and his daughter, Mrs. R. L. Hodgdon; 
Mr. Addison Gage, his son, Charles O. Gage, and daughter, Mrs. 
C. H. Newell, were pillars of strength in the parish; James Brown, 



Past and Present 215 

Nathan Robbins, Judge William E. Parmenter, B. Delmont 
Locke, Henry J. Locke, John Schouler, T. G. Biicknam, Charles 
Griffiths, Albert Winn, Samuel G. Damon, John Osborn, Henry 
Whittemore, and William Stowe were prominent and influential 
in both town and church. Russell, Hill, and Homer are family 
names of long standing. Other honored names are those of 
Samuel Butterfield, Frank Whittemore, Washington J. Lane, 
J. J. Hewes, Charles E. Goodwin, and Nehemiah Munroe Fessen- 
den. The mothers, the wives, and the daughters have been as 
conspicuous and active as the men. How well they have cared 
for the parish is shown by its freedom from debt. There has not, 
for a century, been a debt of any size, and frequently there has 
been none. Li more recent years, as Arlington has become 
more and more a suburb of Boston, the congregation has con- 
tinued to include men prominent in business, the professions, 
literature and art, and has gi^'en a governor to the Common- 
wealth. 

Within a century the church from being a territorial parish, 
supported by a public tax, has changed to a local church of one 
denomination. The extent of territory served by it has decreased 
from various causes, chiefly the erection of other churches more 
convenient to the inhabitants, but its numbers have increased 
from the growth of population. The inside history has been a 
checkered one. Three other churches have been founded more 
or less largely by seceders from it, — the Arlington Baptist 
Church (about 1781), the Arlington Universalist Church (1840), 
and the Belmont Congregational Society (Unitarian). Twice the 
parish has been seriously crippled, once its life was endangered, 
but in each instance it has survived its period of weakness, and 
grown into greater strength. 

The most important dates in the history of the parish are: 
Parish founded, 1733; first meetinghouse built, 1734; church 
society organized, 1739; second meetinghouse built, 1804; third, 
1840; fourth, 1856. 

The ministers have been: Samuel Cooke, 1739-1783; Thaddeus 
Fiske, D.D., 1788-1828; Frederic Henry Hedge, D.D. (the first 
Unitarian minister), 1829-1835; David Damon, D.D., 1835-1843; 



216 Town of Arlington 

William Ware, 1843^1845; James Francis Brown, 1848-1853; 
Samuel Abbot Smith, 1854-1865; Charles Christie Salter, 1866- 
1869; George Webber Cutter, 1870-1877; William Joseph Parrot, 
1878-1881; John Perkins Forbes, 1882-1887; Augustus Mendon 
Lord, 1887-1890; Frederic Gill, 1892. 



Past and Present 217 



ARLINGTON BAPTIST CHURCH 

By E. Nelson Blake 

There was a Baptist Churcli in Cambridge (of which Arling- 
ton was then a part) in 1751, but not long afterwards it 
went out of existence. Religious meetings of persons friendly 
to the Baptist forms and beliefs were held in the Northwest Pre- 
cinct of Cambridge, as this village was then called, in the year 
1773, but the earliest preserved record of such a meeting is dated 
September, 1780. These records are headed: — "Votes and 
Proceedings of the Baptist Society in Cambridge, Sept. 4, 1780." 

The special entry to which reference is here made reads: 

A number of the Baptist Society in Cambridge met at Stephen 
Robbins' to have some discourse about sending a letter to the 
Association to inform them of our circumstances and to desire 
their prayers. 

This letter was duly sent to the "Warren Association" by the 
hand of Elder Caleb Blood, pastor at Newton, signed by Thomas 
Williams, John Williams, and Stephen Robbins. On Oct. 23, 
1780, these brethren in the Northwest Precinct of Cambridge 
(now Arlington) chose a committee to wait on Deacon Winchester 
to see if he would supply them with preaching. 

A compact of six "Articles," drawn by a committee of which 
Captain Benjamin Locke of "^linute-man" fame was chairman, 
was agreed upon and signed by thirty-four members. 

These "Articles" were remodeled Dec. 20, 1785, with sixty- 
one signers. They specify as qualifications for membership, 
"Those only who Avere friends of the cause, understanding its 
merits, and actuated by worthy motives." 

These "worthy motives" made no appeal to the church already 
established here. As early as 1772 Rev. Mr. Cooke, of the First 
Parish Church in this precinct, preached sermons here against 
those who denied the validity of "Infant Baptism," continuing 
the same against the "Baptists" down through 1775. In the 
records of March 10, 1774, of the First Parish of this precinct is 



218 Town of Arlington 

this vote: — "Voted to not excuse the people who call them- 
selves ' Anti-Pedo's/ from paying ministerial taxes." In the 
records of the meeting of March 15, 1775, "Voted to not excuse 
the people called Anti-Pedo-Baptists from paying ministerial 
taxes of years 1773 and 1774." 

This opposition, and what would now be considered unfair 
treatment, had the usual result with men who had fought for 
"liberty," and on Dec. 15, 1780, the persons named below, signed 
"Articles" previously adopted at meeting of Sept. 4, 1780: 

Isaac Cutter George Swan 

Aaron Cutter Samuel Swan 

Stephen Cutter Gershom Swan 

Gershom Cutter Timothy Swan 

Charles Cutter Peter Swan 

Capt. Benjamin Locke Jacob Buckman 

William Locke Samuel Buckman 

John Locke Moses Buckman 

Thomas Locke Philemon Robbins 

Nathan Locke Stephen Robbins 

Ebenezer Swan Ebenezer Hill 

Philemon Russell Samuel Jones 

Nathaniel Goddard Joshua Reed 

James Frost Isaac Munroe 

John Winship Wyman 

Brimmer Cook 

Fowle Robinson 

We will give up ourselves and all that we have to the Blessed 
God, for His use and Service, by His Grace helping us. We Avill 
make it our great care to promote the public worship of God, 
agreeable to His Holy Word. We will maintain love and friend- 
ship among ourselves and all who shall join with us by God's 
Grace helping us. We will receive all those to join with us in 
this Society, that give us satisfaction that they are of the Baptist 
persuasion and principles. Whereas the people of God have been 
imposed upon in this place in years past by people of wicked and 
disorderly principles, therefore we think it our duty to not admit 
any such to Society with us. 

It will be ample for the purpose of a general local history to 
give the records of official action by church and parish which 
culminated in procuring a place for public worship. Clear, 



Past and Present 219 



concise, emphatic, their suggestiveness is such that no narrative 
could enhance their \-ahie as a mirror of the period and the 
people. 

Dec. 4, 1780. "Voted to not pay any ministerial taxes to 
the Parish Collector in future, and to stand by one another if 
'distress' is made on any one of our number; also to inform the 
Assessors of this Precinct, that we cannot in conscience pay any 
taxes in support of a minister we do not hear, nor do we think 
it our duty to pay any Parish charges that do aim for the support 
of the 'Congregational' meetinghouse in said Precinct, as we 
are of the 'Baptist' persuasion, supporting public preaching 
among ourselves." 

Feb. 27, 1781. "Voted to have a convenient place to enter- 
tain strangers, ministers and others, and pitched upon Captain 
Locke's house for that purpose agreeing to be 'equal' in the 
cost the Captain should be at for that purpose." 

On March 6, 1781. "Voted, if we can buy a suitable barrack 
reasonably, to purchase it for a meetinghouse." " Chose a Com- 
mittee to go and pitch upon one that would do." 

On ]ilarch 12, 1781. "Voted, to buy Captain Locke's house 
with twelve rods of land, for such price as our committee and 
he shall agree upon, also, to give Joseph Shaw the present tenant, 
fourteen hard dollars to remove his family from said house." 

On March 19, 1781. "Voted to accept report of Committee 
on Meetinghouse, agreeing to give Capt. Benjamin Locke, 100 
silver dollars for his house, he to have the chininef/," also to assess 
themselves by an "equality," and chose a committee to assess 
each member. At this time, all money for church purposes was 
raised by a committee on an "equality" basis. 

In voting to raise money by assessing themselves on the 
"equality" plan, they used this language: "All who choose to 
do their duty by subscribing an amount can do so; others will 
be assessed by equality." 

It is only by inference that we know the transaction with 
Captain Locke was satisfactorily completed. From other sources 
we learn that the house belonging to Captain Locke was fitted 
for church purposes by remo\-ing the chimney (churches were 



220 



Town of Arlington 




BUILDING FIRST USED BY THE 
BAPTISTS AS A CHURCH 



not heated in those days) and altering the interior into a hall 
the full size the frame would allow. This building, returned to 

its original use as a dwelling, 
stands on Appleton street, 
opposite Acton. 

The records of the Warren 
Association show that at the 
meeting at Bromfield, in Sep- 
tember, 1781, ^Ir. Thomas 
Green was appointed to 
"preach at Cambridge the 
third Lord's day in Novem- 
ber." In July, 1782, the 
society engaged Mr. Green 
"to preach six weeks or two 
months on probation." This engagement was prolonged for 
about one year, when the society concurred with the church 
members in calling him as the regular pastor. He was ordained 
and installed Nov. 26, 1783. 

. On Nov. 3, 1783. "Voted to give Mr. Green four dollars a 
week for services as pastor, to be paid monthly." 

On Jan. 3, 1785. "Voted, to choose a Committee of Five, to 
assist our brethren Gershom Cutter, Stejihen Cutter and Charles 
Cutter, who are distressed upon for defending our religious 
principles and privileges; also to employ Esquires Lincoln and 
Bradford to defend them." 

From the town records we learn that the town voted on Jan. 
20, 1785, to choose committee of two to assist "Standing Com- 
mittee" in suit against "Baptists," appropriating nine pounds 
(S45) for the purpose. At subsequent meeting Committee 
reported expending £7 lO.s. 3c/. for suit with Baptists. 

On Feb. 21, 1785. "Voted to raise £8 ($40) by equality to 
defray expense of Pastor Green and brethren Thomas Whitte- 
more and Philemon Russell to attend Court at Concord as wit- 
nesses in this suit." 

Oct. 13, 1785. Voted to add £5 ($25) towards expenses of suit 
with Northwest Parish in Cambridge. On Nov. 14, 1785, Town 



Past and Present 



221 



voted to not pay back money collected by Seth Stone, Collector, 
from Gershom, Stephen, and Charles Cutter; but on Dec. 23, 1791. 
town voted to allow Collector Joshua Adams £22 Is. 4d. deducted 
by him from taxes on Seth Stone's list. Freedom of conscience 
won at last. 

Dec. 4, 1789. Voted to raise £75 ($375) for the support of the 
gospel the ensuing year, the amount to be raised by a committee 
on equality basis. 

:\Iay 24, 1790. Voted to grant the " prayer " of the Woburn 
brethren with regard to the Rev. Thomas Green's preaching one 
Lord's Day in a month at Woburn. 

]»Iarch 29, 1790. Voted to accept offer of Ephraim Cook to 
donate a lot of land on which to erect a new meetinghouse. This 
house now stands on northeast corner of Massachusetts avenue and 
Brattle street. 

Oct. 11, 1790. Voted to stand by each other in suit against 
Woburn precinct by Joseph Wyman and others. Another "dis- 
tress" case for conscience' sake. Also chose committee to look 
after case and to raise money for same by "Equality." 

Oct. 19, 1790. Voted to 
sell old meetinghouse for 90 
dollars. 

The second building for 
church purposes owned by 
Arlington Baptist Parish was 
erected on land "five rods 
square" donated by Ephraim 
Cook on the corner of Massa- 
chusetts avenue and Brattle 
street. It was erected in 
1790 and was a plain, barn-like structure, in outward appear- 
ance and interior arrangement conforming to that of the 
old First Parish Church, and is standing today, occupied as 
a dwelling. 

On Aug. 8, 1791. Society voted "that our Woburn brethren 
have privilege of preaching there according to the money they 
pay, if agreeable to the Church and minister." 




BAPTIST CHURCH 

Built I 790 



222 Town of Arlington 

Nov. 28, 1791. Voted to raise by equality or average, £85 
for expenses for the coming year. 

Dec. 19, 1791. Voted to give Pastor Green for his services 
for ensuing year £65 and a convenient house and barn, with 
garden spot and the surplus or loose money in the collections, 
also what he pays more than 12s. ($3) a cord for firewood and 
2s. 4rf. per hund. for hay, and pastures for his creatures. 

Dec. 23, 1793. Voted to pay 9s. a week for minister's board, 
and 9s. a week for his horse-keeping; $2.25 a week for each. 

On Feb. 29, 1796. Voted to rai.se thirty pounds ($150) to 
supply pulpit ensuing year. 

On Feb. 13, 1797. Voted to raise $133.33 for supplying pulpit 
for ensuing year. 

There seems to have been no settled pastor after Mr. Green 
left in 1792, but the names of Revs. Williams, Livermore, Lovell, 
Blanchard, ^lerrill, Lincoln, White, and others, appear on the 
treasurer's book every year, with payments to them for services, 
until the society was legally incorporated by the Massachusetts 
legislature on Feb. 3, 1817. Annual meetings, with James Frost 
as moderator and Isaac Cutter as clerk, were continuously held. 
On Jan. 3, 1805, acknowledgment of deed for land (the site of 
present meetinghouse) was made by James Frost, moderator, 
and Isaac Cutter, clerk for society. 

The reorganization of the church, as it exists today, in 1817, 
found its strong impetus in the bequest of Stephen Cutter. By 
will dated March 16, 1816, he left a legacy of $5,000 to be paid on 
death of his wife Mary. She relinquished one half before her 
death, and added also the gift of the building on Massachusetts 
avenue so long used as the parsonage. The whole was valued at 
over $11,000. 

March 26, 1816, preliminary steps were taken by the parish 
to secure a legal incorporation, and on Feb. 3, 1817, "The Baptist 
Society of West Cambridge" became a legal body. The church 
was already organized, and comprised the following names: Daniel 
Brooks, INIary Cutter, Elizabeth Williams, Abigail Robbins, Deliv- 
erance Winship, Lydia Jones, Simeon Harrington, William Symmes, 
Nathan Russell, Jr., Seth Reed, Charles Mackintire, Martha Frost, 



Past and Present 223 



Thomas H. Teel, Eliza Frost, Salh^ Putnam, Luc}'- Tufts, Leonard 
Cox, Susanna Crosby, Bathsheba Brooks, Rachel Dickson, Han- 
nah Estabrook, Daniel Crouch. 

Under the inspiration of the expected help from the promised 
legacy, a pastor (Rev. Benjamin C. Grafton) was chosen, and once 
more the church on the corner of Brattle street was the scene of 
Sunday services and mid-week meetings. 

The church enjoyed a period of uninterrupted prosperity under 
Parson Grafton, and when, in 1824, he was succeeded by Rev. 
John Ormsby, the parish felt warranted in building a new church 
on land given by 'Sir. Cutter. 

This third church home was plain in architecture, with four 
long windows on each side. A square tower in front was sur- 
mounted with four pointed spires. Samples of this type of 
church building are to be seen in many country towns. This 
church was dedicated Sept. 9, 1828. July 2, 1838, the parish 
appropriated money for an organ. In 1840 a bell was placed 
in the tower. 

This building served the church and parish until 1851, when it 
was torn down to make room for the Gothic structure on the 
same site, destroyed by fire July 25, 1900, a picture of which 
is shown in the group picture of churches at the beginning of 
this section. It was dedicated March 31, 1853. In 1892 
this building was altered and repaired at an expense of over 
$9,000. 

Before the embers of the burned church were cold the call for 
a parish meeting was issued. This meeting was held Aug. 6, 1900, 
when the society voted to proceed to rebuild on the same spot. 
Committees were chosen, who at once proceeded with their work. 
By gifts of land the society's lot was extended to Willow court. 
Ground was broken on March 4, 1901; corner stone laid on Sept. 
7, 1901; building dedicated Nov. 4, 1902. Whole cost of land 
and furnished building was $94,000. Towards meeting this the 
society received $23,562 from insurance companies. A bell of 
4,500 pounds weight, memorial to Mrs. E. Nelson Blake and 
son, was presented to the society by Mabel Blake Kohlsaat, of 
Chicago, and was placed in tower of the building. The large 



224 



Town of Arlington 



stained glass window in tower front was a gift from the family 
of Dr. Swaim, former pastor, as a memorial to him. 

On November 22, 1906, the society and church appropriately 
observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of Rev. 
Charles H. Watson, D.D., as pastor. The church now numbers 
316 members. 

Settled pastors: Winchester, for brief time; Marshall, for brief 
time; Thomas Green, from Nov. 25, 1781, to some time in 1792. 
No settled pastor until Rev. Benjamin C. Grafton came March 
11, 1819, continuing till June 1, 1823, but sums were raised every 
year for preaching and needed expenses. John Ormsbee, from 




ARLINGTON BAPTIST CHURCH 
Built 1902-3 



June 6, 1824, to some time in 1827; then Revs. Bentley, Jacobs, 
and Ball were preachers until Aug. 24, 1828, when Rev. Ebenezer 
Nelson was called, who remained till July, 1834. Rev. Appleton 
Morse settled from October, 1834, till October, 1836; then Rev. 
Charles ^filler, from December, 1836, till October, 1837; then 
Rev. Timothy C. Tingley, from November. 1838, till May, 1845; 
then George J. Carleton, from August, 1845, till May. 1851; then 
Joseph Banvard, from November, 1851, till early in 1854; then 



Past and Present 225 



Samuel B. Swaim, from March, 1854, to early in 1863; then John 
Duncan, from April, 1863, till some time in 1865; then Amos 
Harris, from 1865 till 1874; then Charles H. Spaulding, from 
October, 1875, till 1880; then Charles H. Watson, from Septem- 
ber, 1881, to present time. 



ARLINGTON HEIGHTS BAPTIST CHURCH 

This church doubtless had its beginning at the time when sepa- 
ration was made in the services held in what is now the Park 
Avenue Congregational Church, and Rev. John H. Cox, pastor of 
the Lexington Baptist Church, came to preach there Sunday 
afternoons. 

When it was evident a majority of the members of the society 
holding the church property would ultimately turn it over to the 
Congregationalists, those who had been interested in forming a 
Baptist church secured help from the Baptist Missionary Asso- 
ciation, rented Union Hall as a place of meeting and organized a 
Sunday school. This was in 1898, and the land on which the 
church stands was secured that year. 

The following year the church was formally organized and 
incorporated under Massachusetts law^s, and secured Rev. A. W. 
Lorimer as pastor. Under his inspiration the church was built. 

In 1902 the first pastor was succeeded by Rev. George W. 
McCombe, who retained the office until May 6, 1906. Oct. 14, 
1906, Rev. Ira M. Baird was installed as the third pastor of this 
church and is still in office. The full list of auxiharies to the 
church is well maintained. 



226 Town of Arlington 



FIRST UNIVERSALIST SOCIETY OF ARLINGTON 

Condensed from a Sermon by Rev. Harry Fay Fister, 

Pastor 

Universalism came to America with John Murray in the year 
1770. Soon after this it came to the httle village of Menotomy. 
The winter of 1773-74 Mr. Murray preached in Boston and vicin- 
ity, continuing to thus "speak the word" for many years, having 
settled in (lloucester in 1775. It is quite certain that the people 
of Menotomy heard Mr. Murray preach in Boston, Cambridge, or 
possibly the town itself in the winter of 1773-74, and that he con- 
verted some to his way of thinking, for there is a tradition that 
there were UniN'orsalists in Menotomy prior to the Revolution. 
This tradition finds substantiation in the records of the First 
Congregational Parish of the town. However, the Universalists 
of the village at this early date seem to have been very quiet. 
There appears to be no record of a society existing in the town, or 
of their making their influence felt in the First Parish Church. 

In 1822 there w^as a Universalist society of some sort in the 
village. Thomas Whittemore says in his autobiography, page 
319, "On settling at Cambridgeport my engagement was two-fold. 
I was to preach alternately at that place and West Cambridge. 
We met in a hall owned by Chandlci- Wright, about one mile 
east of the center of the town. In May, 1822, I was called to 
preach upon the text," etc. 

When Doctor Fiske resigned as pastor of the First Parish 
Church, an endeavor was made by both the Universalists and 
Unitarians to gain control of the society. Tlie Universalists were 
not numerous, and the Unitarians readily carried the vote, so 
that the First Congregational Society became in December, 
1828, the First Congregational Society (Unitarian). This re- 
organized church fellowship called Doctor Hedge to the pastorate . 
The ITniversalists took advantage of the change to promulgate 
their doctrine and to work for their cause. 

An informal organization, independent, of course, of the First 
Parish Church, was formed about 1S3U, and religious services 



Fast and Present 227 

were held in schoolhouses und halls of the town, the members at 
the same time keeping up connection with the First Parish Church. 
In 1837 this simple organization is mentioned in the records of 
the First Church us the " Universalist Society." In 1834 there 
is another minute to be found to the effect, " Voted not to employ 
any minister or ministers called Universalists, to preach in said 
Congregational Meeting House in West Cambridge." These two 
instances go to show that the Universalists were making their 
infhience felt at this time in the affairs of the First Parish. 
Doctor Hedge resigned March 9, 1835. There is no doubt that 
his resignation was antici})ated, and that the Universalists had 
been trying for some time to secure a Universalist minister as 
his successor, the vote of a few months previous that no Univer- 
salist minister or ministers should be employed by the society 
being a result of this effort. 

I said that it was evident that the resignation of Doctor Hedge 
was anticij^ated. This statement is borne out by the fact that 
f(Mir days after Doctor Hedge resigned as jiastor, the Rev. David 
Damon, a Unitarian, was settled as the fourth pastor of the 
historic church. 

With thoughts of starting as an independent movement, or 
disappointed in not securing the settlement of a Universalist, or 
with hopes of winning over the faltering Unitarians, the Univer- 
salists refused to contribute toward the support of the new min- 
ister, subscriptions being voluntary at this time. This threw the 
burden of support upon the I'nitarians, who found it somewhat 
tlifficult, although the salary of the minister was but five hundred 
dollars. 

The church building at this time was much out of repair, and 
an effort was made, especially by the Unitarians, to build a new 
building, with pews sold subject to taxation, which would help 
to relieve the financial difficulty. The Universalists opposed the 
movement, and it was generally understood ihat when the matter 
was put to vote, the side which won would assume control of the 
church. Few town meetings have created more excitement than 
the parish meeting called for the fall of 1839, which was to decide 
as to whether or not a new church structure should be built. 



228 Town of ArUiigton 

There was a mustering of the clans from the rocks and hills of 
the west and northwest, a gathering of the cohorts from the 
plains of the east and southeast. 

At the appointed hour the opposing forces were marshaled by 
well-known leaders and the battle commenced. It was bloodless 
(possibly to Uie surprise of many of the participante), but never- 
theless a strenuous one. After the votes had l:)een recorded and 
counted, the moderator declared that by a very small majority 
it was voted to bviild a new building. The Universalists had lost, 
and the Unitarians had possession of the old First Parish property. 

The Universalists considered this a final decision, and instead 
of acquiescing, immediately withdrew from the First Church, 
made their informal organization a permanent one, and took 
steps towards the erecting of a meetinghouse of their own. 

The first regular society meeting at which business was trans- 
acted was held Aug. 13, 1840, at Whittemore Hotel, and the 
name given to the organization was "First Universalist Society 
in West Cambridge." The officers chosen at this meeting were: 
Moderator, William Whittemore; clerk, Moses Bacon; treasurer, 
Jesse P. Pattee; standing committee, Ammi C. Teel, Kimball 
Farmer, Jesse P. Pattee. It was not, however, until Feb. 21, 
1848, that the society voted to petition for an act of incorpora- 
tion from the General Court, granted soon after. 

Land on IMassachusetts avenue, opposite Academy street, suf- 
ficient to build a house of worship, was purchased of Capt. Charles 
Wellington, Cyrus Cutter, Sr., offering "to throw out in common 
with the society's land 14 feet in front and running to a point in 
the rear/' which squared the church lot and was gratefully 
accepted. 

It was August, 1840, that the decision was made to build a 
meetinghouse, and a few days later a committee was appointed 
to take charge of the matter. So enthusiastic were these early 
workers that by the middle of January following they had the 
house ready for dedication. 

The days of the summer and fall of 1840 were interesting ones. 
Both societies, the Unitarian and Universalist, were building new 
meetinghouses. There was considerable and possibly some hard 



Past and Present 229 

feeling. ^lost of the sj:)ai'e hands and teams of the town were 
pressed into service to work witlioiit pay, and from the noise of 
the saw and the ring of the hammer one would have thought 
that a western building boom had taken the town by storm. 

It must be said in passing that when both churches were built 
and the societies comfortably housed, the excitement and hard 
feeling, if there was any, was all forgiven and forgotten, and the 
two societies became comrades instead of antagonists, and this 
bond of fellowship established in 1S41 has never been severed, 
and holds the societies even today. On Wednesday, Jan. 20, 
1841, the Universalists dedicated their house of worship. The 
erection of a church building was the inspiration for activities, 
and from tliis time on items in connection with the life of the 
church are by no means scarce. 

The new church building was a modest little structure, 56 X 46 
feet, with a square, box-like tower. Its color was white, symbolic 
of purity, and during the sixty-six years that the structure has 
been standing it has never been painted any other color. Some 
animated discussions have taken place in parish meetings when 
the question of the painting of the church has l^een brought up, 
many wanting it painted a color more in keeping with the modern 
times, but the statement that it has always been white and become 
known in the town as the "white church" has made many regret 
that they even thought of painting it an}^ other color. Inside 
the structure was severe in its decorations, and would be counted 
now cold and unattractive. The pews were of the straightback, 
square, box variety, the pulpit in the further end and the choir 
seats in the rear. On Jan. 20. 1841, the dedicatory exercises took 
place, a numl^er of the programmes of the occasion being pre- 
served in the town. The ministers participating in the service 
were Revs. Usher, Thomas Whittemore, Otis A. Skinner, Hosea 
Ballou, 2d, and J. G. Adams, the sermon being preached by Otis 
Skinner. Of the two hymns sung on the occasion one was com- 
posed by Rev. J. C. Waldo, the first pastor of the church, and the 
other by his wife. 

The men who petitioned for the first parish meeting and were 
the first subscribers for a building fund were: Henry Frost, Jef- 



230 Town of Arlington 

ferson Cutter, Joseph Locke, William L. Clark, Francis Russell, 
William Whittemore, Ammi C. Teel, Kimball Farmer, John Fowle, 
John Jarvis, Jesse P. Pattee, Josiah H. Russell, Moses Bacon, clerk. 

The building committee was composed of William Whittemore, 
Capt. John Jarvis, Kimball Farmer, Josiah Russell, Cyrus Cutter, 
Henry Frost, Ammi C. Teel, Jesse P. Pattee, William L. Clark. 

The society continued to worship in this structure for twenty 
years, or until the congregations began to be too large for it and 
the activities demanded more and larger facilities. 

On April 18, 1860, the society voted to move the church back 
upon the lot, add twelve feet to the front and raise the whole 
building three feet, take down the tower and erect a steeple. The 
committee having the matter in charge engaged the services of 
Architect Thomas J. Silloway, formerly a Universalist minister, 
and under his direction the building was remodeled into a beau- 
tiful church edifice. Especially has the steeple been admired, 
it being said that it is one of the finest specimens of its kind, 
"highly decorative," in Boston or vicinity. 

The building remained with slight alterations and repairs, as 
remodeled in 1860. until the summer of 1896, when extensive 
changes were made in the main auditorium of the building, the 
pews being changed, the decorations more in keeping with mod- 
ern ideas, electricity installed, and the choir gallery changed 
from the rear of the church to the back of the pulpit. At this 
time a beautiful memorial organ (the first one in use was installed 
in 1850) was given by Walter B. Farmer, a grandson of Kimball 
Farmer, one of the subscribers to the original church building, 
in memory of his father, Elbridge Farmer. 

With these changes, and alterations made in the vestr}^ in the 
summer of 1901, the building is now in first class condition. 

As the society went on in its history, from time to time organi- 
zations were formed that connected themselves with the parish 
to help and sustain it. The most important of all was the Church 
Organization formed in August, 1841. It is supposed that forty- 
two members composed the original church, with Rev. J. C. 
Waldo, pastor; Ebenezer P. Peirce and Henry Frost, deacons; 
Thomas Thorpe, clerk; Jesse P. Pattee, treasurer. Members were 



Past and Present 231 



admitted by baptism and aclcnowledgment of loelief in the con- 
fession of faith contained in the constitution of the organization. 
The first communion was observed Aug. 1, 1841, and the records 
state that "23 sett down." 

The Sunday school was organized prior to tlie church organi- 
zation, namely, in June, 1841. Mr. Barker was the first super- 
intendent, and has been followed by a splendid succession of 
earnest workers who have sustained its work and helped the 
church. At one time in the early history of the Sunday school 
the interest was very low, consequently the attendance poor. 
There is a tradition that two of the women teachers whose names 
we do not know pledged to each other that as long as there was 
one pupil to attend the sessions they would keep the Sunday 
school open. At any rate, if the school languished it did not die. 

Every church that is properly organized, at least every Univer- 
salist Church, has connected with it a Ladies' Society. We have 
a missionary in our denomination who is very active in forming 
new churches. One of the first things he does is to organize a 
"Ladies' Aid Society." Some of his critics have been unkind 
enough to say that his churches consist of a number of ladies 
organized into a Ladies' Aid Society. On the other hand, it must 
be said that the churches organized by this missionary are of a 
pretty good kind. The Samaritan Society or, as it was originally 
called, the Universalist Female Samaritan Society, was organized 
about 1841. Unfortunately the early records of this society are 
missing, and what we know about it is what has been preserved by 
word of mouth. It is said that Mrs. Waldo, wife of the first 
pastor, was the first president. Mrs. Waldo was a daughter of 
Hosea Ballou, one of the great men of the Universalist denomi- 
nation, a woman of winning presence and strong character. The 
work of the Samaritan Society has been rich in deeds of helpful- 
ness and charity, and by it the parish has been aided and sus- 
tained in all its efforts. 

November, 1889, the Young People's Christian Union was 
organized. This society has had great influence in holding the 
young people, bringing them in touch with the church and quick- 
ening within them the spiritual life. 



232 Town of Arlington 

In 1896 was organized the Altar Guild. Its name signified its 
purpose, — to take proper care of the altar of the church. It has 
lived up to its purpose, supplying the necessary furnishings and 
beautiful floral decorations for the pulpit, and flowers for the sick 
and bereaved of the parish. 

In 1898 was formed the organization of the Willing Workers, 
composed of the little girls of the Sunday school, and managed 
by an older person as director. These little people have shown 
an enterprise and enthusiasm in their many good deeds of benev- 
olence that might well be copied by workers of older years. 

I would make a note of two generous bequests that have in the 
course of these years been made to the society. The first was 
that of Maria C. Robbins, daughter of Kimball Farmer, -one of 
the founders of the church, and wife of Eli Robbins of New York 
City. This sum was $5,000, given October, 1884. Upon receiv- 
ing this amount the society voted to call the gift the "Robbins 
Fund," and that it should be held safely invested by the trustees 
of the society, the income to be used to aid in paying the expenses 
of the society. It is so held today. Of the second bequest, or 
bequests, those of the late Samuel Bucknam, given in 1896, $2,000 
was given to the Society, $1,000 to the Samaritan Society, and 
$500 to the Sunday school, and eventually his homestead comes 
to the society to be used for a parsonage. The moneys received 
from Mr. Bucknam are held in funds, and only the interest used 
by the societies. 

The following are the names of the several pastors of this 
church and their terms of service: J. C. Waldo, 1841-1847; Williard 
Spaulding, 1847-1848; George Hill, 1850-1860; William E. Gibbs, 
1860-1866; J. W. Keyes, 1866-1869; William H. Ryder, 1871- 
1873; William F. Potter, 1876-1882; E. L. Houghton, 1885-1886; 
Francis A. Gray, 1886-1889; Irving C. Tomlinson, 1889-1893; 
Harry Fay Fister, 1894, and still in office. 



Past and Present 233 



ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 

Compiled from an Address by Rev. Samuel C. Bushnell, 

Pastor 

The Orthodox Congregational Church of West Cambridge 
(now ArUngton) was organized wuth thirty-four members (nine 
men and twenty-five women) on the 14th of December, 1842. 

The history of the church goes further back, dating j^erhaps 
from the 8th of June, 1842, when a "meeting of the EvangeHcal 
Christians residing in West Cambridge and vicinity was held at 
the residence of Miss Anna Bradshaw, for the purpose of religious 
worship." To this good woman more than to anyone else the 
Orthodox Church owes its existence. She was the granddaughter 
of the Rev. Samuel Cooke, the first minister of the First Parish, 
and loyal to the teachings for which he and his successor. Rev. 
Thaddeus Fiske, had stood for ninety years [1739-1828]. 

The one strenuous desire of her heart was to have those teach- 
ings perpetuated b}- an organization which would carry on the 
work which had been abandoned by the First Parish when it 
became Unitarian under the leadership of Rev. Frederick Henry 
Hedge and the Rev. David Damon. She did not wish to antago- 
nize the new views, but to maintain the old. There was no fric- 
tion or bitterness of spirit on either side, but a firm conviction 
on the part of some that in spite of the changes of opinion the 
old faith was worth standing for at any cost. 

Miss Bradshaw lived in the Cooke homestead, which stood 
about where the Congregational parsonage on Maple street stands 
now, but facing Pleasant street. She owned two acres of land 
adjoining and another small lot of land, which brought her an 
income of thirty dollars a 3^ear. Her only other means of sup- 
port was the rental of half of the homestead and what she could 
make by boarding the school teacher. At one time she culti- 
vated silk-worms, feeding them upon the leaves of mulberry trees 
which grew behind the house. 

But straitened though she was in funds for many years, she 



234 Town of Arlington 

was filled with this one idea, which found expression on the 8th 
of June, 1842, in a meeting for religious worship, held in her 
house by several members of Orthodox churches residing in 
West Cambridge and vicinity. 

Dr. Albro, of Cambridge, was present, and took part in the 
meeting. At its close it was decided to have such meetings 
every week thereafter, for prayer and conference. No record of 
those meetings was kept, but by them a beginning was made 
which resulted, six months later, in the organization of a church. 

With this thought in mind, ^liss Bradshaw was quick to turn 
an approaching event to her purpose ; for when a committee 
requested the privilege of erecting a tent upon her grounds for a 
Fourth of July celebration, she gladly consented, on condition 
that the tent might remain a few days for the holding of religious 
services. The condition was cheerfully accepted, the committee 
promising to come to the services and help fill the tent. 

Accordingly, on the 10th of July, the Rev. Hubbard Winslow, 
of Boston, of the Bowdoin Street Church, preached to a large 
and attentive audience, which little realized that a church would 
soon occupy the spot covered by that tent. On the following 
Sabbath evening another preaching service was held in Miss 
Bradshaw 's house. 

So much interest had by this time been excited that the Baptist 
Society kindly tendered the use of their house of worship for 
religious exercises. After holding services for four successive 
Sabbath evenings at the Baptist meetinghouse, it was determined 
to secure the Odd Fellows' Hall (afterwards named Meno- 
tomy Hall). Here they remained until their own church was 
dedicated two years later. Miss Bradshaw gave the land on 
which the church was built, and followed this by another gift 
twenty years later of her "homestead estate on Pleasant street, 
consisting of about two acres of land with buildings thereon." 
After her death on the 30th of November, 1869, at the ripe age 
of eighty-four, this land was divided into five lots and a narrow 
court running through it was widened into the present Maple 
street. Four of these lots were sold and the present parsonage 
built by the proceeds. 



Past and Present 235 



After various preliminary meetings the church was organized 
by an ecclesiastical council at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 14, 
1842, with the following members: 

Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, D.D., and his wife, Mrs. Lucy Fiske 

Miles Gardner and his wife and two daughters, Mrs. Lydia Gardner, Miss 
Lydia T. Gardner, Miss Almira Gardner 

Jonathan Teel and his wife, Mrs. Lydia Teel 

Thomas Teel and his wife, Mrs. Susan Frost Teel 

Edwin R. Walker and his wife, Mrs. Paulina Walker 

Luke Wyinan and his wife. Mrs. Ruthy Wyman 

James Wyman 

Luke Wyman, Jr., and his wife, Mrs. Mary Ann Wyman 

Jolin Williams and his wife, Mrs. Rebecca W illiams 

Mrs. Ellen Bart let t Mrs. Anne Locke 

Mrs. H. M. Bemis Mrs. Eliza Osborne 

Mrs. Mary Bro^\^l Mrs. E. C. Proctor 

Mrs. Adaline W. Dodge Mrs. Lydia T. Richardson 

Mrs. Rebecca Drury Mrs. Frances Thompson 

Mrs. Mary Frost Miss Anna Bradshaw 

Mrs. Electra B. Hill Miss Lucy Davis 

Miss Catharine Pollard 

A society was organized on the 2d of January, 1843. The 
church was supplied with preaching by various ministers in the 
vicinity until the 5th of March, 1843, when the Rev. Francis 
Horton, formerly pastor of the church in West Brookfield, occu- 
pied the pulpit. On the 17th of May, he was installed as the 
first pastor of the church, having received a unanimous call 
from both church and society. 

The new house of worship was dedicated Nov. 29, 1844. jMr. 
Horton's text was from the 93d Psalm, which number corresponds 
exactly with the additions to the church during his pastorate of 
eleven years. 

The growth was steady but not rapid. The main thing in 
that first decade was to lay the foundations and get things well 
started. The church was fortunate in receiving into its member- 
ship on the 6th of July, 1845, Mr. and Mrs. John Field. For 
thirty-one years, nineteen of which he served as a deacon, John 
Field gave of the best of his energies to the welfare of this church 
and community. Many were his gifts, which began with a church 
organ and ceased only with his death in 1876. 



236 Town of Arlington 

The second pastorate was that of the Rev. Daniel R. Cady, 
who was installed Feb. 14, 1856. Dr. Cady's advent was sig- 
nalized by the enlargement and improvement of the house of 
worship at a cost of more than $6,500. The church, which had 
been closed for five months, was reopened, Nov. 15, 1857. Two 
years later we read of a subscription of more than S3, 000 to 
pay the debt incurred when the meetinghouse was built in 1844. 

Dr. Cady's pastorate covered the second and third decades of 
the history of the church. This was a far more stirring period 
than the first, because it embraced the Civil War and the years 
which preceded that tremendous struggle. Dr. Cady was a man 
well equipped for his task, commanding at once the esteem 
and love of the entire community; felt not only within the limits 
of his own parish, but so related to the activities of the town 
at large (notably through his long connection with the public 
schools) as to win and hold the confidence of all. 

The third pastorate was that of the Rev. J. Lewis ^Merrill, who 
was installed on the 3d of January, 1878, and died two and a 
half years later, on the 20th of June, 1880. His pastorate though 
brief will never be forgotten. It was during Mr. Merrill's pastor- 
ate that the church voted, on the 8th of February, 1878, to adopt 
the weekly offering plan for benevolence, which, with certain modi- 
fications, is in' use today. 

Nearly two years elapsed before the fourth pastor, Rev. Edward 
B. Mason, D.D., was installed on the ninth day of March, 1882. 
His service covered seven years, he being dismissed April 2, 1889. 
Doctor Mason's coming, like that of Doctor Cady, was signalized 
by extensive repairs upon the church, which was also enlarged by 
an addition in the rear, and equipped with proper and commo- 
dious vestries, at an expense exceeding ten thousand dollars. 
While these repairs were being made, union services were held for 
several months in the Baptist Church, upon their invitation, the 
Revs. Doctor Watson and Doctor ]\Iason alternating in preaching. 
The enlarged and renovated church was rededicated on the 25th 
of February, 1883, which was also observed as the fortieth anni- 
versary of the church. It was during Doctor Mason's pastorate 
that the Young Ladies' Missionary Society was organized, in 



Past and Present 237 



1884. This society liad a continuous career of usefulness until 
the time it, together with the older organization known as the 
"Ladies' ^lissionary Circle." was merged into the Bradshaw 
Missionary Society — which was the first definite attempt to 
honor ^iiss Bradshaw by attaching her name to any organization 
connected with the church she loved so well. It was in Doctor 
Mason's time, also, that the "Young People's Society," long con- 
nected with the church, became identified with the Christian 
Endeavor Society, under the leadership of Henry A. Kidder, 
Oct. 7. 1886. 

The ])resent pastor, Rev. Samuel Clarke Bushnell, the fifth 
since the organization of the church, was installed on the 6th of 
February, 1890, and has now completed seventeen years of ser- 
vice, during which time he has received 219 into the membership 
of the church. 

Increasing the seating capacity of the auditorium by intro- 
ducing three rows of pews in the center by sacrifice of space 
in front and rearranging all the other pews, was an enterprise 
inspired l)y Rev. Samuel C. Bushnell, the present pastor, and 
at the same time a new organ was bought. 

Through part of the interval between Doctor ^lason's going 
and jMr. Bushnell's coming, the interests of the church were care- 
fully looked after by the Rev. Frank G. Clark, who served as 
temporary suppl}^, and under whom eleven additions were made 
to the church. And here a statement might be made as to the 
growth of the church from the first. 

As is common with chin-ches of the denomination, the main 
financial concerns are in the hands of a parish holding title to 
the real estate, with its own corps of officers, but its make-up is 
such that any friction l;)etween chiu'ch and parish is hardly a 
possibility. 

The office of pastor has been filled as follows: Rev. Francis 
Horton, 1843; Rev. Daniel R. Cady, D.D., 1856; Rev. J. Lewis 
Merrill. 1878, died in office, :\Iay 23, 1880; Rev. Edward B. 
Mason. D.D., 1882; Rev. Frank G. Clarke (supply); Rev. Samuel 
C. Bushnell, 1890, still holds the office. 

The church has been verv fortunate in its deacons, the first 



238 Town of Aiiington 

five, Luke Wyman, Miles Gardner, John Field, Joseph Burrage, 
and Henry Mott, dying in office, and the next four remaining 
till this day, Warren S. Frost, Edwin B. Lane, Edwin Mills, and 
]\Iyron Taylor. The first superintendent of the Sunday school 
was E. R. Walker and twenty-seven have followed him in this 
office. 

As has been stated the church originally numbered thirty-four 
persons. The additions have been, under Mr. Horton, 93; Doc- 
tor Cady, 262; Mr. Merrill. 24; Doctor Mason, 125; Mr. Clark, 11; 
Mr. Bushnell, 219. 



Past and Present 



239 



ST. AGNES' CHURCH 

By Rev. .1. M. Mulcahy, Pastor 

Until the year 1S70 the Cathohcs of Arlington and Bel- 
mont were part of the congregation attending the church in 
Cambridge known as 
old St. Peter's. Its 
pastor was Rev. Manas- 
ses P. Dougherty, who 
died in 1877. 

In the year 1869 
Father Dougherty found 
that the time had come 
for a division of his dis- 
trict and, because of the 
increasing number of the 
Catholics of Arlington, 
he began the construc- 
tion of a new church in 
this to\\'n. It was built 
on Medford street, the 
old road from Boston 
to Lexington and Con- 
cord, along which Paul Revere sped on his ride. 

The church was a brick Gothic structure and dedicated to 
St. Malachy. The first service was held on Christmas Day, 
Dec. 25, 1870, to the gratification of the Catholic congregation, 
few, indeed, in numbers, but generous in spirit, who through 
personal sacrifices made the building of a church possible. Until 
January, 1873, divine services were conducted and the spiritual 
needs of the people attended by the priests of St. Peter's, under 
the guidance of Rev. AI. P. Dougherty. 

Then a resident pastor, Rev. Joseph 31. Finotti, was appointed, 
and Arlington became a distinct parish including Belmont, Lex- 
ington, and Bedford. The two latter towns had been previously 




ST. AGNES CHURCH 



240 Town of Arlington 



attended from Wobiirn and Concord, and, 1870 to 1873, had a 
resident pastor. Rev. P. J. Canny. On account of continued 
poor health, Father Finotti retired from active service in April, 
1876, and was succeeded by Rev. Matthew Harkins, at present 
bishop of the Providence Diocese. His earlier experience, after 
his ordination in Paris and subsequent studies in Rome, had 
been gained in Salem, where he served as assistant clergyman 
at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. 

Under his zealous care the congregation increased in numbers, 
the church was decorated, an organ furnished, a parochial resi- 
dence built, and many other improvements added, besides the 
building of the Lexington church. 

Rev. James J. O'Brien, now pastor of St. Catherine's Church, 
Somerville, was assistant to Father Harkins during the greater 
part of his pastorate and materially helped in the upbuilding 
of the parish. 

In April, 1884, Rev. Matthew Harkins was transferred from 
Arlington to the charge of the important parish of St. James, 
Boston, and w^as succeeded by Rev. Thomas H. Shahan. His 
pastorate of seven years embraced several steps of progress in 
the Arlington parish. In 1886, Lexington, which since 1873 had 
been included in the parish and had had a church of its own 
since 1865, was set off as a separate parish. In March, 1888, St. 
Joseph's Church was built on Common street, Belmont, for the 
Catholics of that town. 

In September of the same year a school for girls was opened 
on Chestnut street, Arlington, opposite the church. The school 
is in charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph. In June, 1891, Father 
Shahan was transferred to the Sacred Heart Parish in Maiden, 
which he founded, and where he died in 1902. 

The present pastor, Rev. John M. Mulcahy, is a native of 
Salem, where he was born in 1851. He was ordained in Troy, 
N.Y., in 1875. As assistant he was in the Gate of Heaven Church, 
South Boston, until July, 1885, when he was appointed pastor of 
St. Mary's Church, Franklin. June, 1891, he was assigned to the 
charge of the Arlington parish. 

In August, 1900, the town of Belmont was set off and made 



Past and Present 241 



a separate parish, and now the ArHngton priests minister to the 
CathoHcs of this town only. 

The church was enlarged and remodeled in 1900, and reded- 
icated under the patronage of St. Agnes, by which name it is 
now known. The ceremony of dedication was performed by 
Most Rev. John J. Williams, Archbishop of Boston, Oct. 28, 
1900, assisted by the local clergymen and about sixty others 
from different parts of the state. Rt. Rev. Monsignor Thomas 
Magennis of Jamaica Plain preached the dedication sermon, and 
at the vesper service the sermon was delivered by Rev. Arthur 
T. Connolly of Boston. At both services most of the leading 
citizens of the town assisted, non-Catholics as well as Catholic. 

The Catholics of the town now number three thousand five 
hundred souls, more than one third of the total population. 

The present pastor is Rev. John ^I. Mulcahy, and Rev. Joseph 
P. Lawdess and Rev. Edward F. Crowley, assistants. The hours 
of services on Sunday are 7, 8.30, 9.30, 10.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. 
Sunday school 2 p.m. Attendance of children six hundred. 



242 Town of Arlington 



ST. JOHN'S (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH 

Condensed from a Sermon by Rey. James Yeames, 

Rector 

The earliest records of the Episcopal church in Arlington are 
in the handwriting of Rev. David Greene Haskins, who was the 
minister in charge. Naturally they relate largely to details of 
arrangements to organize a parish in Arlington to which he had 
specially devoted himself, backed by Rev. T. S. Tyng, rector of 
St. James' Parish at North Cambridge. 

Services under his auspices and conducted according to Epis- 
copal form were held in Town Hall on the afternoon of Sunday, 
Oct. 3, 1875, music being supplied by members from the choir of 
St. James' Church, and ^Ir. W. G. Haskins assisted his father by 
reading the lessons. 

Notice was given that a meeting would be held at the close of 
the service to discuss the advisability of establishing an Episcopal 
church in Arlington, and forty-five of those attending the service 
remained to participate. 

It was decided to continue the Sunday services and on the 
second Sunday following a Sunday school was started, to be held 
in the forenoon. 

In the interval citizens of Arlington specially interested in the 
project had made arrangements for leasing a smaller and more 
convenient place for worship, and on Sunday, November 17, the 
little congregation assembled in Menotomy Hall and at this time 
numbered about one hundred persons. 

The interest manifested led to the formation of a parish by 
this "mission" of St. James' Church. A warrant was drawn 
and all legal formahties complied with and on Wednesday, Jan. 
19, 1876, St. John's Parish of Arlington came into existence with 
Albert Griffiths and C. S. Childs as wardens; T. H. Wakefield, 
William Wilson, Robert Dinsmore, G. M. Sands, William J. Dins- 
more, Thomas Scott, Irving Johnson, F. J. Johnson, Edward 
Morse, vestrymen; Albert Griffiths, clerk; T. H. Wakefield 
treasurer. 



Past and Present 243 



The church and parish being organized, the next step was the 
building of a church. The parish voted, Aug. 8, 1876, to author- 
ize the purchase of the lot of land on the corner of Academy and 
^laple streets, and on plans furnished gratuitously by Mr. H. M. 
Upham of Boston, the church still standing there was built. It 
was ready and was used for services for the first time on Sunday, 
Oct. 21, 1877. 

Rev. Dr. Haskins continued to serve the church in the office of 
rector until June 21, 1880, when having secured a successor, a 
previously expressed wish to be relieved was granted, with 
an expression of appreciation of his fidelity and devotion, 
unanimously adopted by the parish. 

In 1882 a ]\Iason & Hamlin organ was procured to aid in the 
services. 

In 1884 the land in the rear of the church on which the parish 
house stands was purchased and the church also was able to 
"relinquish all help from the diocesan board of missions." 

In 1892 extensive changes were made. The edifice was raised 
and a cellar dug and a foundation of brick substituted for wood. 
The Parish House was built soon afterwards, completing the 
equipment for convenient work in all departments of church 
activities, all of which have been' helped by the pipe organ secured 
a few years ago. The pastors who have ministered at St. John's 
Church are as follows: 

Rev. David G. Haskins, 1875-1880; Rev. Charles L. Hutchins,. 
1880-1882; Rev. Charles M. Addison, 1882-1885; Rev. Charles 
Ketchum, 1885-1889; Rev. Thomas Bell, 1889; Rev. Frederic 
Pember, 1890-1891; Rev. M. K. Schemerhorn, 1891-1894; Rev. 
C. M. Westlake, 1894-1896; Rev. W. S. W. Raymond, 1886-1897; 
Rev. James Yeames, 1897, and is still in charge. 



244 Town of Arlington 

PARK AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 

By John G. Taylor, Pastor 

Religious services were held in Union Hall, Arlington Heights, 
as early as October, 1881, and a Sunday school was organized in 
connection therewith. In 1885, the interest in them had so far 
growai as to lead to a movement to build a house of worship. 
As yet there was no church organization, but "there seemed to 
be a growing desire on the part of the people to lay aside denomi- 
national preferences and unite in a Christian community for 
religious services and for the erection of a suitable church building 
in which to worship." 

In furtherance of this "desire" a meeting was held in Union 
Hall, March 31, 1885, to organize a corporation to raise funds to 
purchase a site and build a chapel at the Heights. 

The following committee was chosen for this purpose: James 
O. L. Hillard, Joseph C. Holmes, George F. Grant, Theodore B. 
Merrick, John K. Simpson, Jr., Clarence T. Parsons, Thomas H. 
Sylvester, George W. Austin, William C. Taylor, Jacob Baird, 
Benjamin Randall. 

In accordance with the instructions of this meeting, the above 
eleven men took the necessary legal steps, April 14, 1885, to 
organize a corporation "for the purpose of building a house of 
public worship and owning the same, and for the purpose of hold- 
ing so much real and personal estate in addition to such meeting- 
house as may be necessary for the object of such corporation." 
This corporation became known as "The Proprietors of the 
Church at Arlington Heights." 

Aug. 15, 1885, a lot of land on the corner of Park avenue and 
Vine street was secured, containing 8,206 square feet, and a con- 
tract was made with Joseph H. Baxter to erect a chapel thereon, 
in accordance with the plans of Theodore B. Merrick, for the sum 
of $3,345. The total cost of the land, building, and furnishings 
was $7,200. The building was dedicated Dec. 30, 1885, Rev. 
Joseph T. Duryea, D.D., of Boston, preaching the sermon. 



Past and Present 



245 



Under direction of the ]:)roprietors Prof. Daniel Dorchester, Jr., 
Avas invited to assume the duties of a minister of the parish, which 
he did, terminating his relation with them April 1, 1SS7. 

For a short time Bradford K. Peirce, editor of Z ion's Herald, 
served the parish as its minister. It soon became evident to the 
proprietors that the religious needs of the people would be served 
best by organizing them into a society for the entire care of 
rehgious services. On ^larch 26, 1888, the proprietors so recom- 
mended, and in accordance therewith the ''Union Parish" was 
organized April 2, 1888, and the use of the building was granted 




PARK AVENUE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 



to them for a rent sufficient to cover expenses. The ministers 
serving the "Union Parish" were Prof. George ^I. Harmon, Rev. 
Solomon P. Fay, Rev. Alfred Free, Rev. ^Ir. Collyer, Rev. William 
B. Allis, Rev. Robert E. Ely, Rev. Alfred E. Stembridge, in order 
named, each for brief periods. 

August 4, 1891, another group of people organized themselves 
under the name of "the Evangelical Parish" and by mutual 
arrangement" shared thereafter the use of the l)uilding with the 
Union Parish. In connection with this parish a Christian En- 
deavor Society was organized Oct. 7, 1891, which continues unto 
the present time. 

In 1892 the Union Parish organized a Church of Christ out of 



246 Town of Arlington 

its membership, thereby separating, after the New England cus- 
tom, between the secular and religious care of the parish. The 
pastors of this church were Rev. A. E. Woodsum, Rev. John H. 
Cox, Rev. Alfred E. Stembridge. 

Meanwhile; in response to a general request of the people, the 
proprietors voted in 1898 to admit anyone to membership over 
twenty-one years of age who was interested in the religious ser- 
vices at the Heights. 

It soon became evident to the proprietors and the two parishes 
that the religious interests of this part of the town would be best 
served by uniting in some one church organization. In accord- 
ance with this conviction and after preliminary meetings to devise 
the best course to pursue, it was agreed to organize a Congrega- 
tional church out of the parishes already existing, including most 
of the proprietors, thereby conserving the historical connection 
from the beginning in 1881 and 1885. In this way the Park Ave- 
nue Congregational Church came into existence March 10, 1899, 
and was recognized by a Council on March 22, Rev. Samuel E. 
Herrick, D.D., of Cambridge, preaching the sermon. The mem- 
bers came from the Church of Christ of the Union Parish by letter 
and from the Evangelical Parish, to the number of forty-nine. 

Rev. Alfred E. Stembridge became their first pastor, but re- 
signed in [1899, and was succeeded in January, 1900, by Rev. 
John G. Taylor, who still serves the church in that relation. 

This church was incorporated March 28, 1900, and on Dec. 26, 
1902, the proprietors transferred to it by sale, their house of wor- 
ship and land on Park avenue. 

The present membership of the church is 103, with the agencies 
usually belonging to a well organized church. 



Past and Present 



247 




TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH 



THE TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH 

The Trinity Baptist Church, formerly "Trinity Chapel," is the 
youngest of the churches in Arlington. It occupies a site at the 
corner of ^lassachusetts ave- 
nue and Amsden street. The 
church was built in 1904 at a 
cost of S6;000, and has a 
maximum seating capacity of 
three hundred and thirty. 
The plans were drawn by 
Charles B. Dunham, archi- 
tect of the First Baptist 
Church, and it was built b}" 
William Gratto of Arlington. 

The church has an interesting history. It is the outgrowth of 
cottage prayer meetings, going back as far as 1889, and under 
the supervision and care of Rev. Drew T. Wyman, pastor of the 
West Somerville Baptist Church, and his senior deacon, Warren 
L. Teele. These meetings were carried on at private residences 
until 1894, when suitable quarters were found in N.orth Cambridge. 

Here, in the same year, the Sunday school was organized and 
the first superintendent, Warren L. Teele, has continued in un- 
broken service until now. The interest was first mothered by 
the West Somerville Baptist Church, but later the North Avenue 
and First Baptist Church of Arlington assumed proportional 
financial support. 

The present building was begun September 7, 1903, and com- 
pleted Feb. 7, 1904. The society organized into a regular Bap- 
tist Church on Feb. 17, 1905, with fifty charter members. On 
]\Iarch 6, 1907, the church celebrated its second anniversary and 
numbered one hundred and one members. 

During the winter 1907 an addition was placed upon the church 
and interior improvements were made at a total cost of $1,800. 
A new and improved baptistery has been made, with accompany- 
ing appointments. 



248 Town of Arlington 



The church sustains reguhir church services and the attend- 
ance upon these, together with an increasing Sunday school, 
augurs well for larger quarters before long. The Sunday school 
has a membership of two hundred and twenty-five. The total 
cost of the church including land and improvements is at present 
$11,800. 

The pastor of the church is Rev. William Austin Hill, who has 
completed nearly four years of service. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT 
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS. 

On Easter Sunday, March 31, 1907, the first Methodist church 
building in Arlington was dedicated w^ith interesting exercises. 
It is located at the junction of Westminster avenue and Lowell 
street, with entrances on both, and is an attractive building, cost- 
ing about $6,000. 

The church is the outgrowth of cottage prayer meetings started 
in 1901 and culminating in a Sunday service in Union Hall, April 
21, 1901, with Rev. Walter G. Smith officiating. Under the in- 
spiration of the "Gospel Ten of Boston University," the church 
grew and on July 15, 1901, was formally organized by Presiding 
Elder J. H. Mansfield. 

For four years the church occupied the hall where it was or- 
ganized and having ovitgrown its capacity, proceeded to erect 
the new church. Thirteen new members were received March 31, 
1907, and the present membership is about seventy. The Sunday 
school has an enrollment of eighty-five. 

Rev. Walter G. Smith was the first pastor and has been suc- 
ceeded in that office by Rev. I. W. LaCount, Rev. B. W. Rust, 
Rev. A. F. Reimer, the latter now being in service. 



SECTION SIX 



ARLINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

By Charles 8. Parker 



1693-1907 

First schoolhouse built in 1793. — Its dimensions and site named. — Used 
as a church. — New building erected in 1746. — New brick school in 
1801 for "Middle District;" in 1808 for "East District." — Center 
school building removed to burying ground in 1810. — Names of 
teachers employed in 1811. — School building for "South District" in 
1826. — First School Committee chosen in 1827. — New arrangement 
of school districts in 1838. — New schoolhouses built. — First four- 
room building erected in 1861. — High school established 1864. — 
Russell School, of brick, built in 1872-73. — Wooden buildings replaced 
with brick structures 1893-1900. — Bequests for educational purposes, 
— School Committees from 1827-1907. — List of buildings and cost. — 
Appropriation for school purposes in 1811 and 1906 compared. 

IT is a fact of some significance respecting the people composing 
the village called Menotomy, that years before the territory 
had a population sufficient and means equal to sustaining church 
services convenient to their homes, provision for the education 
of their children was made. 

That this reversal of the then prevailing custom "first a church; 
next a school," came because the people were members of the 
church at Cambridge and there enjoyed church privileges, does 
not weaken the argument. The establishment of the public 
school was voluntary; and beyond the granting by Cambridge of 
"a quarter acre of land on the common, near Jason Russell house, 
near the highway," was without assistance from Cambridge. 

This quarter acre was a part of the "Ministry Lot of forty acres 
situated on the Concord road." In 1693 a building about 30 X 40, 
12 feet post, with a garret under the roof, was built well to the 

250 



Past and Present 251 

rear of the present First Parish Church lot. This is in a measure 
supposition; but i\Ir. J. B. Russell says the building replacing it 
was built on the old foundation and on the same plan as its 
predecessor. In locating the site of this building, Mr. Russell 
says, "The rear end of the schoolhouse abutted on the brick wall 
of the long range of tombs erected in 1810-11, and the school- 
house was removed to allow the extension of these tombs." This 
spot is about half way between the present church building and 
Robbins Library. 

If the barn-like structure, devoid of adornment and lacking in 
all essentials for creature comfort, met the ideas of people of two 
hundred years ago as to what a church building should be, it is 
unreasonable to suppose that in providing a school building any- 
thing beyond essentials of shelter and warmth should be consid- 
ered, and very evidently they were not in this instance. 

There are no records relating to this school or to the school 
building except as a place where people assembled to act on local 
concerns. 

The meetings to discuss the matter, also to prepare petitions 
for township or j^recinct rights, were held "at the schoolhouse 
within the said precinct." When precinct rights were granted in 
1732, this building was used for church purposes until a church 
edifice was completed. "The last time this school building was 
used for church purposes was j\Iarch 25, 1737, when the meeting 
adjourned to the meetinghouse." 

Sept. 17, 1733, Francis Locke, Jonathan Gates, and Josiah 
Robbins were chosen a committee to provide for a reading and 
writing school in the precinct. 

Evidently this first structure served its purpose until 1746. 
In that year it was voted "That there be paid out of the treasury 
thirty pounds, old tenor, to help defray the charge of building a 
new schoolhouse in the Northwest Precinct." The other records 
pertaining to this transaction consist of the vote of March 4, 
1767, to employ women as teachers, and that money received 
from sale of the old schoolhouse be used to help pay for fencing 
the burying ground with a wall made of field stones. 

The only mention we have of a school teacher is in a record of 



252 



Town of Arlington 



a meeting held Feb. 24, 1792, where Thomas Green is spoken of 
as teacher. This meeting was called to provide for the support 
of schools and the purchase of a small library. 

Nov. 6, 1801, hills for the building of a new schoolhouse in the 
Middle District were approved. This was the small brick build- 
ing which until a few years ago stood on the south side of Massa- 
chusetts avenue and is shown 
in the accompanying picture. 
This was to take the place of 
a l)uilding on Vine street 
formerly used as a dwelling, 
but fitted for school pur- 
poses to accommodate pupils 
in that section. The building 
committee consisted of Wil- 
liam Whittemore, Jr., Josiah 
Whittemore, Caleb Cole. 
They reported the building 
"as sufficiently done for the 
money Mr. John Estabrook 
demand on him on account 




MIDDLE DISTRICT SCHOOLHOUSE 
Built I 801 



has received and have no other 
thereof." 

In 1808 the town voted to furnish a schoolhouse for the East 
District, and chose as the site the old "training field" on Massa- 
chusetts avenue, through which Linwood street was afterwards 
cut. It was patterned after the structure standing on the First 
Parish Church lot. 

In 1810 the Parish Committee having granted permission, the 
town, at a meeting held Sept. 3, 1810, directed the selectmen to 
remove the schoolhouse from the First Parish Church lot to the 
burying ground. The building was removed to about the center 
of the lot as it exists today and placed on a line with the stone 
wall inclosing the ground, parallel with the south bank of the 
brook. This stream was planked over to make the walk to the 
smaller building to the rear, built directly over the brook. 

On page 253 is a reproduction of a picture made by George 
A. Frost, the well-known Cambridge artist, from dimensions and 



Past and Present 



253 



details supplied by Mr. George Y. Wellington. Others who 
attended school in "the schoolhouse in the burying ground," 
have pronounced it correct even to the smaller details. As it origi- 
nally stood on the foundation made for the first school building 
and Mr. Russell says this second school "was built on the same 
plan as its predecessor," probably we have a picture of the build- 




SCHOOL BUILDING IN OLD BURYING GROUND IN 1810 



ing wdiere Menotomy people held services while the first church 
was being erected. 

The only shade in the old burying ground at this time consisted 
of the bunch of willows shown in the picture. The first of the 
trees now adorning the grounds were planted about the same 
time Mount Pleasant Cemetery was prepared for a burying place. 
When Mr. Wellington described these grounds to the wTiter and 
he recalled his earliest school days and the bunch of willows flour- 
ishing directly opposite his first schoolhouse, the query arose, 
was it Providence, the judgment of the school authorities, or 
merely accident which placed an unlimited supply of these supple 



254 Town of Arlington 

withes so handy for the teacher's use. The question as to the 
wisdom of inflicting corporal punishment in schools had not then 
been raised. 

The old hearse house now located in Mount Pleasant Cemetery 
stood to the right of the school building, but was not included in 
the accompanying picture of the old schoolhouse because it would 
detract from rather than enhance its value as an object lesson in 
the advance in school accommodation since 1810. 

In 1811 the school teachers employed by the town were Ephraim 
Randall, E. G. Bowdoin, John Barrett, John Anderson, each at 
a salary of $148.50. They were Harvard students who were glad 
to find employment during the few months which constituted the 
school year in Arlington at that time. 

In the interval marked by dates already named, and the year 
1827, the outlying section of the town, known as "Flob End," 
had been provided for by the erection of a school building on the 
Seth Frost land nearly opposite Brighton street, and by another 
on Winter street in Arlington. 

In 1827 a radical change was made in the control of schools. 
Up to this date the selectmen had also served as School Committee. 
At the town meeting held April 2, 1827, Timothy Wellington, 
Miles Gardner, Walter Russell were chosen a committee to have 
charge of all educational matters; Jonas Peirce for the Northwest 
District, Thomas Russell in Center, Joseph Whittemore for South- 
east, James Perry for Southwest, were named as ''Prudential 
Committee-men," to superintend the financial departments. 

This meeting also named a committee to consider the expe- 
diency of erecting two new school buildings, one at the Center and 
one for the section now known as Belmont, to take the place of 
buildings greatly needing repairs. The committee consisted of 
James Russell, Jonathan Whittemore, Thomas Russell. Miles 
Gardner, Jonas Peirce, Charles Wellington, William Locke, 2d, 
James Hill, Timothy Wellington. At a subsequent meeting their 
report was accepted. In substance the committee reported it 
inexpedient to build new schoolhouses, but instead recommended 
the "removal of the Center school building from the south side 
of the run in the old burying ground to ground occupied by the 



Past and Present 255 



hearse house and underpin the same with a brick wall. ... To 
clapboard the same and paint if desirable; also to new plaster. 
That the hearse house l)e removed to the schoolhouse site. That 
the building in the South District be moved to the northwest side 
of the road and be put in thorough repair." No record is made 
of the disposition the legal voters made of this report, but Mr. 
Wellington is positive no transfer of the school building to the 
site of the hearse house was ever made. 

The appropriation for schools this year was $600; $110 for men 
teachers, $40 for women teachers. 

Although the selectmen had served as School Committee until 
1827, citizens had been chosen to serve with them since 1822, in 
the following order: John Perry, 1822; Timothy Wellington, 1822; 
Charles Wellington, 1822, 1824, 1825; Miles Gardner, 1822, 1824, 
1825; Samuel F. Wyman, 1822; Jonathan M. Dexter, 1823; Joshua 
Avery, 1823-1826; Ephraim Cutter, 1823; James Hill, 1823, 1826; 
Isaac Locke, 1823; Benjamin Locke, 1823; Amos Whittemore, Jr., 
1823; William Adams, 1823; Jeremiah Russell, 1823; James Perry, 
1824; Nathaniel Hill, 1824, 1826; William Prentiss, 1824; William 
Cotting, 1824-1826; Eliakim Nason, 1824-1826; Jonas Peirce, Jr., 
1825, 1826; Joseph Locke, 1825, 1826; Jonathan Frost, 2d, 1825; 
Amos Hill, 1826; William Hill, 1826. 

The practice of annually choosing a "Prudential Committee" 
to have charge of the financial end of the educational interests 
continued until 1861, when all school affairs were turned over to 
the School Committee. 

The citizens serving the town as "Prudential Committee" are 
as follows: Jonas Peirce, Jr., 1827, 1832; Thomas Russell, Esq., 
1827; Joseph Whittemore, 1827, 1836; James Perry, 1827; Kim- 
ball Farmer, 1828; Thomas Thorpe, 1828; Isaac Shattuck, 1828; 
Isaac Locke, 1828-1830, 1832; William Locke, 2d, 1829, 1841; 
Wilham Cotting, 1829-1831; Samuel Butterfield, 1829, 1831; 
Abner Peirce, 1830, 1838; John Fowle, 1830, 1832, 1833; Abel 
Locke, 1831, 1833, 1837; James Brown, 1831; Joshua Avery, 1832; 
Jesse Bucknam, 1833, 1834-1836; William Hill, 2d, 1833, 1851, 
Jr., 1852; Elijah Cutter, 1834; Seth Frost, 1834; Philip Whitte- 
more, 1834, 1835; Bowen Russell, 1835, 1858; Emerson Parks, 



256 



Town of Arlington 



1835, 1836; John Jarvis, 1835; William Dickson, 1836; Levi Ingalls, 
1837; Henry Whittemore, 1837; Eleazer Homer, 1837, Jr., 1838; 
Washington J. Lane, 1837, 1846, 1847; Abijah Frost, 1838, 1842, 
1849-1852, 1854, 1857; George C. Russell, 1838; Timothy Eaton, 
1839; Isaiah Jenkins, 1839, 1840; George Prentiss, 1839; Chester 
Sanderson, 1840; Joseph Hill, 1840, 1842, 1849, 1854; Abbot Allen, 
1840; Josiah H. Russell, 1841, 1848, 1854, 1855; Adonijah Barnes, 
1841; Ebenezer Hovey, 1842; Stephen Symmes, 1842, 1843; David 
Clark, 1843, 1844, 1856; Joel F. Hanson, 1843, 1846, 1850; William 
L. Clark, 1843, 1850, 1852; Thaddeus Frost, 1844, 1845; Abner P. 
Wyman, 1844; Joseph Wyman, 1844; Daniel Clark, 1845, 1846; 
Abel Peirce, 1845, 1846, 1849; Samuel C. Bucknam, 1845, 1849; 
James S. Russell, 1847; Henry Frost, 1847, 1853, 1855; Matthew 
Griswold, 1847; Gershom Cutter, 1848; Warren Frost, 1848; Ste- 
phen Symmes, Jr., 1848; George Stearns, 1850; Jacob Hutchinson, 
1850; Abner Gardner, 1850, 1854; Thomas J. Russell, 1851; John 
Peabody, 1851, 1859; Samuel Butterfield, 1852; Walter Fletcher, 
1853, 1855; James M. Chase, 1853; Henry Mott, 1853; Warren 
Rawson, 1855; Moses Proctor, 1856, 1860; James Peabody, 1856; 

Joseph S. Spear, 1856, 1857; 
^t David Puffer, 1857; George 

B. Richardson, 1857; William 
T. Wood, 1858; George Henry 
Hill, 1858; John S. Crosby, 
1858; John D. Freeman, 1859, 
1860; Ralph W. Shattuck, 
1859; Josiah Crosby, 1860. 

In 1838 a new division of 
the school districts was made. 
The larger part of the Center 
and East districts became the 
Union District; the Northwest 
District was somewhat en- 
larged, while the Southwest District remained unchanged. In 
the Union and Northwest districts the old schoolhouses were sold 
and new ones built — each two stories high and containing two 
school rooms. The buildings were exactly alike, so this picture 




TWO-ROOM SCHOOL 
Built in 1838 



Past and Present 257 



will represent the others except as regards the location. The 
expense was in part defrayed from a windfall that had come to 
the town during the preceding year — Arlington's portion of the 
surplus revenue of the United States that was distributed among 
the states. It was at first loaned on mortgages, but when the de- 
mand for larger school accommodations became pressing, the 
town decided to use this fund instead of taxing itself for the 
entire cost of new school buildings. 

One of these new buildings was erected where Franklin street 
joins Massachusetts avenue. The "training field" building was 
sold and is now located on Lake street, with a lower story of 
brick added to make it a convenient dwelling. The other new 
school building w'as located near where Robbins road has since 
been cut through, and is shown in the picture on preceding 
page. 

In 1842 a new schoolhouse on the same pattern as the other 
two was built in the South District, on Brighton street, where 
it is still in use by the town of Belmont. These were all three 
of grammar and primary grades, with a woman teacher for the 
latter and a man for the former. 

The school year at this time consisted of two periods. The 
winter term began the week after Thanksgiving and lasted until 
about the end of March, when two weeks of vacation brought 
the beginning of a new year. 

In this year, 1842, a portion of Charlestown was annexed to 
Arlington and with it came two school buildings, one near the 
junction of Old Mystic street and Hutchinson road, and the 
other "near Miles Gardner's," as the record reads. That was 
just below Gardner street, on Broadway. They were small 
schools and the pupils Ix'ing assigned to other buildings, these 
structures were sold. 

In 1850 a companion building of those already spoken of was 
built on Winter street for the East District. 

In 1861 a larger building than any of the others, to contain 
four good rooms, was built to front on Medford street on land 
given to the town by the late James Russell and named "Russell 
School." Two vears later a school of the same dimensions and 



258 



Toum of Arlington 




RUSSELL SCHOOL BUILDING 
Burned in I 872 



on the same plan was built 

in the Northwest District 

and named "Cutter School," 

in honor of the people whose 

bequests for school purposes 

are still doing munificent work. 
Both of these buildings 

Avere destroyed by fire. The 

Cutter school was rebuilt of 

wood, but Russell school was 

replaced with the substantial 

brick structure (erected in 

1872-73) which still fairly 

well serves its purpose. 

In 1864 Arlington added a High school to its course of train- 
ing. In 1858 William Cotting, 
one of the older residents of 
the town, turned over to a 
board of trustees a lot of land 
on Academy street, and on 
this the well remembered 
Cotting High School was 
built. It was named Cotting 
Academy and was conducted 
as a private school to prepare 
pupils for college. 

The late Hon. William E. 
Parmenter had for some time 
been a resident of Arlington 
and from the first had shown 
a deep interest in her schools. 
From him came the sugges- 
tion and the inspiration which 
resulted in the purchase of 
this property by the town 

in 1864 and establishing Cotting High School. 

In 1866 a new school l)uilding was erected on Russell Park and 




HON. WILLIAM E. PARMENTER 
The "Father" of Arlington Public Schools 



Past and Present 259 



named Adams School. It was to accommodate the primary 
grades for the Center District, and was used for that purpose 
until the erection of the new Russell school building in 1873. 
The building is now located on Chestnut street and known as 
"Hibernian Hall." 

In 1877 the growth and development of the Arlington Heights 
section created a demand which was met by the erection of a 
four-room wooden building, and which was most properly named 
"Locke School," in honor of a family identified with the town 
from its early history. 

How all these \\'ooden buildings have given place to elegant, 
commodious modern structures of brick, is of too recent occur- 
rence to need more than this passing mention. Arlington High, 
Russell, Cutter, Crosl^y, Locke school buildings stand as types 
of the best, and with their names keep in remembrance those 
it is well to honor. 

Women voted for School Committee for the first time at the 
annual meeting held March 1, 1880. 

In 1893 Arlington began replacing wooden buildings with 
brick structures planned to meet the wants of the town for a 
number of years to come. The Croome estate on the corner of 
Academy and Maple streets was bought and when the ground 
had been cleared the present High school building was erected. 
One after another the Crosby, Locke and Cutter buildings were 
torn down or sold to be removed and modern structures of brick 
substituted. In size, architectural design, adaptability to the 
purposes for which they were constructed, they stand unsurpassed 
in a section of the state notable for stately and fully appointed 
school buildings. 

A few years ago the demands on the primar}- grades at the 
Center and the desire to include kindergarten work in the course 
of study, led to the building of a new schoolbouse of wood on 
Irving street, and to this latest addition the School Committee 
gave the name of the venerable judge (lately deceased), who in 
a large way was the creator of Arlington schools, — William E, 
Parmenter. 

Abandoned bv the town for school purposes in 1894, Cotting 



260 



Town of Arlington 




COTTING ACADEMY 



High School stood unoccupied. Then on a Fourth of July night 
was discovered to be on fire. Prompt work by the firemen pre- 
vented its destruction. A second attempt at removing it by fire 
left it a charred ruin. When a third attempt to utterly destroy it 
by this means had failed, the firemen were instructed to tear it 
down. They thought it would l)e a sort of picnic, but so thor- 
oughly had it been built, only 
by piecemeal could it be de- 
molished. The lumber was 
\)i\eA up and sold, the refuse 
dumped into the cellar and 
Ijurned, and so passed a fami- 
liar landmark and a building 
around which many pleasant 
recollections hover in the 
minds of some whose heads 
are frosted and many more 
still in prime of young manhood and womanhood, for from 
1864 to 1894 it was 'Totting High School." 

Public schools of Arlington have not alone received liberal 
treatment from the town as a whole. Generous people have 
bequeathed portions of their wealth to enlarge their scope and 
provide special features. The first of these bequests came from 
William and ]\Iary Cutter, and when the ne^^' High school build- 
ing was erected the income from that fund was more than ample 
to equip the manual training department of that school. Of 
their gift the School Committee of 1866-67 said in their 
report : 

Perhaps full justice has scarcely been done to the donor of 
this noble gift to the schools of the to\\n. His will bears date 
March 17, 1823, and it gives his whole estate, S5,000 — as it 
proved to be — after the death of his wife, as a trust fund for 
the benefit of the schools. The town was then poor, and from 
the date of his will, it may well be inferred that at the annual 
meeting he had been struck with the smallness of the sum voted 
for schools, and found it in his heart to increase it in the future 
from his own means. It is the gift of an humble, childless man, 
whose motive could not be other than unselfish. 



Past and Present 261 



In 1836 the town erected a modest granite monument over 
their graves in the Old Cemeter}-. It stands in close proximity 
to the Revolutionary soldiers' lot. 

The second bequest was larger, coming from the ample estate 
of the late Nathan Pratt in 1S75, his gifts to the town aggre- 
gating $25,000. Of this sum $10,000 was set apart for schools, 
but was not to be available until after a new High school had 
been built. When that time arri^'ed, principal and interest had 
reached a total of $22,471.08. Within the past 3-ear it has been 
necessary to ask the courts to broaden the scope of the will 
in order to secure all the income for school purposes, and the 
request has been granted. 

The third contribution "for maintenance and support of public 
schools," as the will read, came from Mrs. Martha M. W. Russell 
in 1892. ]Mrs. Russell had l^een in her younger years a teacher 
in the East District school and is well remembered by several 
living who attended that school. 

The fourth donor of funds to aid in public school maintenance 
was another childless old man, the venerable and venerated 
Deacon Henry Mott, who died in 1898. 

The fifth was a gift of $2,500 from :\Ir. E. Nelson Blake to 
create the E. Nelson Blake, Jr., fund, the income to be devoted 
to the purchase of books as prizes for scholarship and deport- 
ment in the High school. This was accepted by the town 
meeting held March 18, 1895. 

The town has received smaller gifts from numerous donors, 
notabh' additions to the High school library from Dr. Cotting, 
son of the founder of Cotting Academy; pictures and busts from 
Arlington Women's Club; and from graduating classes at High 
school, — each in turn adding something to their adornment and 
embellishment. The result is that nearly every schoolroom in 
town has something in the line of high-class art to relieve blank 
walls. Each season, also, income from the invested funds 
furnishes a series of lectures in ''Cotting Hall," as the main 
hall of Arlington's High school building is most appropriately 
named. 



262 



Town of Arlington 



In a large sense the general outline of Arlington public schools 
ends with this culmination of a broad and comprehensive plan 
of public school buildings. In another important particular it 
may seem to some deficient, yet the increase in number of schools 
and improved conditions of buildings as already recorded, it is 
believed, suggest with sufficient clearness that Arlington schools 
have kept pace with developing methods of public school educa- 
tion. A casual examination will convince any that the highest 
standards and best known methods are alone in vogue with us. 
Full particulars of growth and development along educational 

lines are recorded in printed reports 
of the School Committee on file in 
the Town Clerk's office, open to any 
desiring to trace this line of growth. 
Emanating from men like Dr. Rich- 
ard L. Hodgdon, the first superin- 
tendent of schools; Hon. William 
E. Parmenter, who for twenty-five 
years filled the office of Chairman 
of the School Board; Dr. William 
A. Winn, who as secretary under 
Judge Parmenter had received an 
ideal training for the chairman- 
ship; Judge James P. Parmenter 
PP .^ij^.^ who was his successor, and a list 

of school superintendents whose 
names are given elsewhere, the story is more than well told. 

That the town has been willing to follow the leadership of such 
men is a credit alike to patriotism in its broadest scope (sacrifice 
for the good of others) evidenced by the people of this section 
from the earliest days of its history, and a sound common sense 
which has so often been shown in their actions as recorded in 
preceding pages. 

There are men other than those named whose memories should 
be held in grateful remembrance, but instead of making selec- 
tions, the entire list of school committee-men from earliest time 
until 1907 is given at the end of this section. 




Past and Present 



263 



Arlington in 1907 has five school buildings of brick of most 
approved pattern and equipment, erected as follows: 



Name 


When Built 


Cost 


Russell School 


1872-73 
1893-94 
1894-95 
1898-99 
1900-01 
1903 


$58,633 


High School 


80,000 


Crosby School 


38,000 


Locke School 


29,000 


Cutter School 


40,000 


Parmenter School 


22,000 



The first year's expenses for support of schools of which a 
report is on file, namely 1811, gives the total cost as $610 for 
salaries and fuel, the only items given. 

Last year the town, in addition to income from several ''school 
funds" that have been named, taxed itself to the amount of 
$59,000 for maintenance and instruction. 

The following is a full list of those who have served the town 
as members of the School Committee from 1827 until the present 
time: 



General School Committee-men since 1827. 



Timothy Wellington, 1827, 1831, 

1834, 1835. 
Miles Gardner, 1827. 
Walter Russell, 1827. 
Col. Thomas Russell, 1827, 1831, 

1837. 
James Russell, Esq., 1828, 1829, 

1832, 1839^1. 
Charles Wellington, 1828. 
Jonathan M. Dexter, 1828, 1829, 

1835-1837. 
Rev. Ebenezer Nelson, 1829, 18:30, 

1832, 1833 — thanks of the town 

extended for his faithful services 

as one of the school committee, 

in 1834. 
Rev. F. H. Hedge, 1830, 1832, 1833. 
James Nason, 1830, 1832 (vacant 

by removal from town). 



James Brown, 1831. 

Isaac Locke, 1832 (resigned). 

George A. Locke, 1833, 1834, 1849. 

David Dodge, 1834-38 (excused), 
1842 (excused). 

Rev. Da\dd Damon, 1836-38. 

Henrv Whittemore, Esq., 1837, 
1838, 1847, 1848. 

William Hill, 2d. 1837, 1838. 

Philip B. Fessenden, 1838. 

William W. WelUngton, 1838 (ex- 
cused) . 

Samuel L. Cutter, 1838. 

Rev. Timothy C. Tingley, 1839-41. 

William Locke, 2d, 1839 (excused). 

John Fowle, 1839, 1840. 

Abner Peirce, 1839. 

Mansur W. Marsh, 1839-41, 1848, 
1850. 



264 



Town of Arlington 



Nathan Robbins, 1840. 

Rev. J. C. Waldo, 1842 (excused), 

1846, 1847. 
Luke Wyman, 1842, 1843. 
Joseph Hill, 1842-44. 
Josiah H. Russell, 1842, 1844. 
Moses Proctor, 1842, 1843, 1858- 

60. 
George C. Russell, 1842, 1847. 
George Holden, 1843. 
Ebenezer P. Peirce, 1843-45, 1847. 
Rev. WilMam Ware, 1844, 1845. 
Luke Wyman, Jr., 1844. 
Rev. Francis Horton, 1845-48, 

1853. 
Rev. George J. Carlton, 1846. 
Rev. Willard Spalding, 1848. 
John Field, 1848. 
David W. Horton, 1849, 1850. 
Rev. James F. Brown, 1849. 
Abner Gardner, 1849, 1851, 1852, 

1854. 
John Schouler, 1849. 
William J. Niles, 1850 (resigned). 
Thomas P. Peirce, 1850 (excused), 

1863. 
John P. Wyman, 1850, 1855. 
Dr. Howland Holmes, 1850. 
Rev. George Hill, 1850, 1851-56, 

1858, 1859. 
Stephen Symmes, Jr., 1851, 1854, 

1859-61. 
Joseph O. WeUington, 1851, 1852, 

1857. 
Addison Hill, 1851, 1853-55. 
Joseph Burrage, 1852, 1853. 
James E. Bailey, 1852. 
Rev. Joseph Banvard, 1853. 
Dr. Joseph Underwood, 1854, 1855, 

1857. 
Dr. J. L. Alexander, 1855. 
Rev. Samuel B. Swaim, 1856, 

1860-62. 
Hon. William E. Parmenter, 1856. 
Dr. Richard L. Hodgdon, 1856-71. 
Warren S. Frost, 1856. 
Josiah Crosby, 1857, 1859, 1876. 
Edwin Locke, 1858. 



John Adams, 1858. 

John D. Freeman, 1858-63 (re- 
signed). 

Rev. Daniel R. Cady, 1861-77 (re- 
moved from town) . 

Rev. William E. Gibbs, 1862-67. 

Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith, 1863- 
65 (deceased). 

Henry Swan, 1864-84. 

Samuel G. Damon, 1866-67. 

Rev. Amos Harris, 1867 (declined). 

Rev. Charles C. Salter, 1867-69. 

Rev. J. W. Keyes, 1868-69 (left 
town) . 

John Field, 1868-70. 

Henry J. Wells, 1868-72. 

Samuel G. Damon, 1869-70. 

Ira O. Carter, 1870-73. 

Moses Hunt, 1870-71. 

Charles E. Goodwin, 1870-85. 

Charles H. Crane, 1871 (declined 
and excused). 

John T. Trowbridge, 1871-77. 

Charles Schwamb, 1871-74. 

Rev. William H. Ryder, 1872 (re- 
signed) . 

Rev. J. M. Finotti, 1873-75 (left 
town) . 

Rev. Amos Harris, 1874-75 (left 
town) . 

John H. Hardy, 1874-76. 

Alfred Hobbs, 1874-78. 

Rev. George W. Cutter, 1875-76. 

John W. ,West, 1875-77. 

William H. Allen, 1876-82. 

John P. Wyman, 1876-79. 

John S. Crosby, 1876-82. 

F. V. B. Kern, 1876-80. 

Daniel F. Jones, 1877-81. 

Rev. Matthew Harkins, 1878-79. 

Marcus Morton, 1879-82. 

John H. Hardy, 1880-91. 

William A. Winn, 1880-91. 

Timothy O'Leary, 1881-93. 

William F. Potter, 1881-84. 

Charles H. Crane, 1881. 

Edwin J. Gerry, 1882-85. 

William E. Wood, 1882-88. 



Past and Present 



265 



Alouzo W. Damon, 1SS2-S4. 
Rev. Charles H. Watson, 1883- 
Rev. Edward B. Mason, 1883-J 
James A. Bailey, 1884-90. 
Warren W. Rawson, 1884-96. 
Reuben W. Hopkins, 1886-92. 
James P. Parmenter, 1886-95. 
Herbert H. Ceiley, 1887-99. 
William T. Foster, 1887-94. 
Joseph C. Holmes, 1888-99. 
Edmund W. Xoyes, 1890-94. 
Georo;e D. Moore, 1890-97. 
Edwin Prescott, 1892-98. 
Franklin Wyman, 1892-99. 
Samuel H. Smith, 1893-99. 
J. Howell Crosby, 1895-98. 
Georgiana Peatfiekl, 1896-1902 
Herbert W 



Timothy O'Leary, 1894-1906. 
•89. Peter Sehwamb, 1897-1900. 
58. William H. H. Tuttle, 1897-1903. 

Anna E. Dodge, 1898-1904. 

Andrew F. Reed, 1898-1904. 

Walter A. Robinson, 1898-1907. 

Ida F. Robbins, 1899-1908. 

John H. Perry, 1899-1908. 

Hattie F. Hornblower, 1900-1908. 

Walter Crosby, 1900-03. 

Harry G. Porter, 1902-07. 

Walter Moores, 1903-09. 

Daniel Wyman, 1903-1909. 

Gertrude A. Churchill, 1904-07. 

Edward W. Goodwin, 1906-09. 

Lindsey K. Foster, 1907-1910. 

John A. Bishop, 1907-1910. 
. Rawson, 1907-1910. 



Much of the time during recent years the immediate oversight 
of Arlington public schools has devolved on a Superintendent. 
To this office J. Freeman Hall was appointed in 1891 and served 
three years. His successor was True W. White for one year. 
Until 1898 the School Committee again exercised direct control. 
In that year Frank S. Sutcliffe was given charge of Grammar 
grades ; later was made full superintendent. In 1904, on account 
of failing health, Mr. SutcHffe gave place to John F. Sculley, who 
has been appointed to serve for another year. 



SECTION SEVEN 

ARLINGTON AND HER LIBRARIES 

First Established 1807 



By James P. Parmenter, a Trustee 

THE present Robbins Library was founded in 1835. Twenty- 
eight years earlier, however, in 1807, only a few months after 
the incorporation of the town, there was established the West Cam- 
bridge Social Library, a private corporation, in which each mem- 
ber had a share, and paid an annual fee. It was not a public 
institution, but many of the most intelligent citizens were share- 
holders, and the books, mainly selected by Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, 
clerk of the corporation, were of solid worth. The collection was 
kept at a member's house, and circulated among the shareholders. 
In 1835 the town received a legacy of one hundred dollars from 
Dr. Ebenezer Learned, of Hopkinton, N.H., to establish a juve- 
nile library. Doctor Learned was born in Medford, was a gradu- 
ate of Harvard College in the class of 1787, and afterwards a prac- 
ticing physician in Leominster, Mass., and Hopkinton, N.H., a 
man who ranked high in his profession, and was interested in 
many good causes. While a student in college he had taught 
school in Menotomy, and doubtless a kindly memory of his life 
here, and a desire to do something to benefit the children of the 
town, prompted this legacy. He provides in his will as follows: 

The selectmen, ministers of the Gospel, and physicians of West 
Cambridge for the time being, shall receive this sum, select and 
purchase the books for the library, which shall be such books 
as in their opinion will best promote useful knowledge and the 
Christian virtues among the inhabitants of said town, who are 
scholars, or by usage have a right to attend as scholars in their 
primary schools. Other persons may be admitted to the privi- 

266 



Past and Present 267 

leges of said library under the direction of said town, paying a 
sum for membership, and an annual tax for the increase of the 
same. 

The selectmen, ministers, and physicians accordingly met on 
Nov. 30, 1835, and voted that the books selected for the library 
should be such as were directed by Doctor Learned's will, '"'the 
same not being of a sectarian character." They then bought 
books to the value of more than four-fifths of the amount of the 
legacy, established the library as "The West Cambridge Juvenile 
Library," and by common consent continued to manage it until 
the town appointed trustees in 1878. 

Jonathan j\1. Dexter was chosen librarian Jan. 27, 1836, and 
the books were kept in his house, the three-story house still stand- 
ing next above the railroad crossing on the south side of Massa- 
chusetts avenue. In 1836 the West Cambridge Sewing Circle gave 
sixty dollars for the increase of the collection, and were granted 
the privilege of taking books for a nominal fee. In 1837 the town 
voted an annual appropriation of thirty dollars for the library, 
and the right to take books was extended to all the families in 
the town. From this time the institution has been a free town 
library, the earliest of its class in Massachusetts. 

Miss Mary Dexter, daughter of the librarian, was chosen in 
her father's stead in 1837, but she declined to serve, and Miss 
Sarah Estabrook was appointed. The library was transferred to 
her home, the old Adams house at the corner of Massachusetts 
avenue and jMystic street. There it remained until 1842, when 
it was moved into a room in the vestry of the new meetinghouse 
of the First Parish. It then contained 545 volumes, and in the 
next two years the number was nearly doubled by the acquisi- 
tion of books bought jointly b}' the state and town for district 
school libraries, and of most of the books of the Social Library, 
as well as of gifts from citizens. In 1849 i\Iiss Charlotte Cutter 
succeeded Miss Estabrook as librarian, and in 1851 ^liss Helen 
M. Jarvis was appointed. 

In 1852 the library was transferred to a small building which 
had been recently moved from the town house site across the 
street to the place now occupied by Dodge's Building. There it 



268 



Town of Arlington 



remained a few months and in 1853 was again moved into the 
new Town Hall building, and was kept there for more than 
thirty 3'ears, being transferred from one part of the building to 
another as its size increased. In 1861 ^liss S. E. Stanwood be- 
came librarian. She was succeeded in 1865 b}' j\Irs. Eliza W. 
Locke, who was followed in 1866 by Miss Mary A. Green, who 
served until 1872, and was then succeeded by the present libra- 
rian. Miss Elizabeth J. Newton. 

With the change of name of the town in 1867, the library 
became known as the Arlington Juvenile Library, and in 1872 




ROBBINS LIBRARY 



its name was formally changed to "Arlington Public Library.'' 
The library had continued to grow steadily, so that in 1871 it 
contained 2,339 volumes, with a circulation of about 6,000. The 
selectmen, ministers, and physicians continued to manage it until 
1878, when the town established a board of three trustees, each 
serving three years, a number increased to six in 1892. Of the 
earlier committee, Dr. Timothy Wellington and Dr. Richard L. 
Hodgdon should be especially mentioned for their long and 
faithful service. 

As the quarters in the Town Hall building had become far too 
small, the libraiy was again moved in 1884, this time to a com- 



Past and Present 



269 




MARIA C ROBBINS 

Rohbins Library."' Here, amid 
iinj)roved facilities, the library 
fic'ial work begun more than 
seventy years ago. 

Until 1860 the town con- 
tinued to appropriate but 
thirty dollars annually. Then 
the amount was increased to 
one hundred dollars, antl a 
few }-ears later to two hun- 
dred dollars. The annual ap- 
propriation has since grown 
with the growth of the town 
and of the library and at 
present is usually three 
thousand dollars in addition 
to the proceeds of the dog 
tax. This was first appro- 
priated for the library in 
1870. accordinii- to the statute 



modious hall and smaller 
rooms in Swans' Block. A 
reading room was then estab- 
lished in connection with it. 
A branch reading room was 
established at Arlington 
Heights in 1891. 

In 1892 the library was 
moved to the noble building, 
built and furnished at an ex- 
pense of $150,000 by Maria C. 
Robbins, in memory of her 
husband, Eli Robbins, both 
natives of the town. In 
grateful recognition of the 
gift it was ^'oted that the 
institution be called "The 
beautiful surroundings, and with 
continues to carrv on the bene- 




ELI ROBBINS 



270 



Town of Arlington 




TIMOTHY WELLINGTON 



directing that this tax must be used for public libraries or 
schools. 

Private beneficence has come to the aid of public expenditure. 
In 1853, a donation of one hundred dollars was received from 
the estate of Dr. Timothy Wellington, clerk 
of the trustees from the beginning, and a 
devoted supporter of the library. In 1875 
810,000 was received under the will of 
Nathan Pratt; in 1889 $5,000 from the 
estate of Henry Mott; and in 1892 $50,000 
from Elbridge Farmer, a brother of Mrs. 
Robbins, who thus supplemented her gift 
of the building with this generous sum as 
an endowment. These gifts will keep alive 
the memory of the givers from generation 
to generation. 

These funds are prudently invested and 
the income only is used for the maintenance 
of the library. Mention should be made of another liberal bene- 
factor, Mr. Winfield Robbins, who has 

enriched the library with many admir- i 

able works of art, especially Avith a 
large collection of portraits of the high- 
est interest and value. A few figures 
will illustrate the growth of the library 
during the last thirty years. In 1876 
the number of volumes was 5,500 and 
the circulation 20,557; in 1886 the num- 
ber was 9,710, the circulation 28,104; in 
1896 the number was 14,308, the circu- 
lation 43,348; and in 1906 the number 
was 21,291 and the circulation 42.553. 

The library holds a high place in the 
esteem of the community. May it long continue to carry out 
the purpose of its founder, to "promote useful knowledge and 
the Christian virtues among the inhabitants" of Arlington. 





ELBRIDGE FARMER 



SECTION EIGHT 



ARLINGTON FIRE DEPARTMENT 



Condensed from an Address before Arlington Historical 

Society by 

Warren A. Peirce 

IT appears by the record that in the early part of the 
eighteenth century eveiy able-bodied citizen of any town in 
the state was enrolled not only in the militia, but was obliged 
by law to equip himself for service in case of fires. In a word 
every man was presumed to be a fireman and if any failed to 
volunteer and provide required outfit, they were fined as in the 
case with shirking military duty. 

At the annual meeting held March 4, 1818, the selectmen were 
instructed to ''purchase fire ladders, fire-ward staffs, fire hooks, 
and such other implements as are needed." This is the first 
mention of fire matters in Arlington town records. 

It is a matter of common knowledge, as indicated above, that 
able-bodied citizens were expected to provide each for himself a 
bed key and wrench, a stout bag to hold about a barrel, two 
leather water buckets. The keys were to remove the screws 
with which bedsteads of those days were put together, the bags 
in which to place household stufT to be taken to a place of safety, 
the buckets to be passed along a double line from source of water 
supply to the fire, full buckets on one side, empties on the other. 
In the "empty" line, boys were generally given places. 

The houses in those days were mainl}^ single story and this 
"hand brigade" often proved an effective way of fighting fires. 
In any event it was all the protection afforded by the "West 
Cambridge Fire Society,' as the association was named. 

271 



272 



Town of Arlington 



In 1825 the town bought a fire engine. It was named "Friend- 
ship No. 1," and consisted of an oval-shaped tub on wheels, with 
a force pump to which was attached about fift}^ feet of hose. 
The brakes or handles to the pumjj would accommodate twelve 
men on a side and this power would force a stream about fifty 




FIRE WARDEN'S OUTFIT IN 1843 



feet perpendicular. There was no "suction" arrangement, the 
"tub" being filled by the use of buckets in double line as before 
the introduction of a machine. The water tank of this engine, 
in a good state of preservation, is owned by Hose Three Company, 
but has been loaned to the Veteran Firemen's Association. Its 
preservation is due to ^Ir. Fred E. Fowle, whose father was a 
member of "Friendship No. 1." 



Past and Present 273 



This engine was stored in a roughl}" constructed house on the 
"common/' near the church on site of Center schoolhouse. Later 
it was moved to the other side of the highway, about where the 
driveway to Center raih-oad station is located. The company 
was volunteer and Colonel Russell and Thomas Thorpe were the 
men who acted as foremen. 

The hooks and ladders were cumbersome things and seldom 
used. They were stored under the First Parish Church and were 
destroyed in the fire consuming that building in 1856. 

In 1832 a new engine was bought, but the question of its loca- 
tion was not easily settled. Belmont on the one hand and High 
street on the other, put in claims. The former was quite a vil- 
lage; in the High street district were located the principal manu- 
facturing interests. These latter considerations seem to have 
prevailed, as a house for the new engine was built on land of 
David Russell, nearly opposite where Hose Two Company's 
house is now located. ^len employed by Welch & Griffiths 
and at the Schouler Print Works formed the new company. 

The "Good Intent" was a four-wheeled machine something 
the shape of a small express wagon, only somewhat lower and 
the body boxed up tight to hold the water; the four brakes were 
just above the top of the wheels and about breast high. There 
were two brakes on each side holding about three men each, 
the}^ worked back and forth, not up and down, and when not in 
use were folded in against the sides. The force pump lay hori- 
zontally in the bottom of the water tank and the hose was 
coupled on the top. After the purchase of the " OUve Branch,'' 
this engine was bought by Col. Thomas Russell. He kept it 
in his stable until about 1847 or 1848, when he sold it to a lot 
of boys for eleven dollars. They ran it as a sort of opposition 
company to '' Olive Branch;" then getting tired of it, sold it to 
Paul Dodge. He sold it to another lot of boys, some of whom 
were Orin Robbins, foreman; Charles B. Fessenden, assistant 
foreman; Edward Frost, clerk; H. W. Wellington, James A. 
Bailey. The last time it appeared in public was at the celebra- 
tion in honor of the introduction of "Eureka" engine in 
1851, when it headed the procession to show the compara- 



274 



Town of Arlington 



tive advancement in engines at that time. A short time after- 
ward, tradition informs us. it was broken up and thrown into 
Schouler Pond. 

The "Olive Branch, No. 3," was purchased in 1835. It was 
a ''Thayer'^ engine about the size of our well known "Eureka," 
and was worked with brakes the same way. It was one of the 
first suction engines built and used in Massachusetts. This 
engine, and "Enterprise 4" (located in what is now Belmont), 
were the first suction engines built by Thayer. 

This engine was located in a new house on land of Walter 
Fletcher, on Massachusetts avenue, almost directly in front of 
the Cutter schoolhouse. The engine was purchased by subscrip- 
tion, Mr. Walter Fletcher heading the list with one hundred 
dollars, and for many years charging no rental for the use of 
the land upon which the building stood. The building was 
afterward moved to the present location of Hose 2 House, 
and was used for several years by the Highland Hose Company 
until the erection of the present brick building. It is now in use 
as a squash house by Edwin S. Farmer, near the junction of 
Massachusetts avenue and Forest street. This section of the 
town was called the West Cambridge Northwest section, and 
the section in which Enterprise 4 was located was called 
the South Fire District. 

The purchase of two new fire engines in 1851 was provided 

for at a meeting held Jan. 
20, 1851, when it was voted 
to a])propriate six hundred 
dollars for two new fire 
engines, provided satisfac- 
tory arrangements could be 
made and the selectmen 
deemed it expedient. The 
old "Eureka," as we of 
today know her, was on 
exhibition at the Mechanics' Fair held in Boston that year, 
and caught the eye of the Arlington firemen. It was the first 
engine built by Howard & Davis, and as the town came into 







'l^p'?i|P*^ 



OLD EUREKA 



Past and Present 275 



possession of it and also of the "Howard" to be located at 
Belmont, it is presumable "satisfactory arranf^ements " were 
made. 

The arrival of the engines in September was celebrated in an 
elaborate way, the procession disbanding at Spy Pond Hotel, 
where a banquet was given. 

With the advent of these modern machines, the old fire dis- 
tricts were abandoned, the former companies disbanded, and 
the selectmen assumed full control of the department. The new 
companies formed to man the new machines were, in the main^ 
members of the previous organizations. "Eureka" is still with 
us, but "Howard No. 2" was destroyed in 1S9S in a confla- 
gration in Belmont that wiped out the buildings on the corner 
of Pleasant and Brighton streets. 

Soon after the arrival of these engines, and for many years 
following, there was great rivalry between companies manning 
Howard & Davis and the Hunniman engines, here and elsewhere 
in this vicinity, and contests between them were frequent. Som- 
erville had a Hunniman engine, and out of "bragging" grew a 
somewhat exciting test of the merits of the machines, Oct. 21, 
1852. Both manufacturers considered the machine he had en- 
tered the best ever sent out from their shops and the contest 
was under their personal supervision. With each of the three 
tests "Eureka" proved the better machine and her company 
was more than ever proud of her. 

In 1855 the town accepted the legislative act creating fire 
departments, and the selectmen appointed W. F. A. Setchell 
as engineer, his assistants being Abijah Frost, Horace Wilson, 
James Thaxter, Ralph W. Shattuck. James Thaxter was chief 
in 1860-1861. 

Owing to difficulties between officials and firemen (Belmont 
was no longer a part of Arlington) the entire department was 
disbanded in 1863, and from this time until 1872 the selectmen 
acted as engineers. 

In closing this section regarding fire matters, it is interesting 
to note that in 1856 the entire cost to the town for fire service 
— both Belmont section and the Center — was $451 .68. That 



276 



Town of Arlington 



from 1863 to 1872 the yearly expense to Arlington was about 
^150. 

In 1872 the selectmen acting as engineers (the selectmen being 
James Durgin, Warren Rawson, Jesse Bacon, Jacob F. Hobbs, 
John S. Crosby), on the introduction of the water works system, 
organized two hose companies, who received the assurance that 
their compensation would be designated at the annual town 
meeting of 1873. They also, in their annual report, presented 
a set of rules and regulations governing the fire department, 
which were adopted at the town meeting March, 1873, and are 
in the main the rules governing our fire department today. 

Aug. 12, 1872, at a special town meeting, on motion of Nathan 

Robbins. it was voted that 




7m. 



three hose carriages and suit- 
able hose, and one hook and 
ladder truck, with buildings 
and land suitable for locating 
said buildings, be procured 
and that a sum not exceeding 
fj I i I ' ^S^^HHHJI^^ twenty thousand dollars be 

appropriated for said purpose, 
the same to be expended 
under the direction of the 
selectmen. 

It was the intention of this 
meeting that a hose carriage 
should be located in the upper 
and lower sections of the 
town; and that the hook and 
ladder truck be placed in the Center of the town. The selectmen 
having full power, thought it would be to the advantage of the 
town to purchase two hose carriages and build a large building 
some distance east of the Center, move and repair the 
Eureka building, and contracts were made accordingly. Under 
the new rules, the selectmen in 1873 appointed James Thaxter, 
chief engineer, and J. W. Peirce, Walter Russell, Henry Hanson, 
and Arthur Poland assistant engineers, and . an appropriation 



HObE THREE HOUSE 
Broadway and Franklin St. 



Past ayid Present 277 



of two thousand five hundred dohars was made. The pay of 
the members was fixed at thirty-fi^•e doUars i^er year and 
remained at that figure until 1S92. when it was made fifty 
dollars per year. 

The selectmen encountered a lawsuit in connection with the 
purchase of the hose carriages, which was finally settled. " Wil- 
liam Penn Hose" was storetl in the new building erected in 1872— 
1873 on the corner of I^roatlway and t'ranklin streets, and the 
"Highland'' in the remodeled "Eureka" building. The former 
building also furnished accommodation for " Menotomy Hook 
and Ladder Truck.'' 

This last piece of apparatus required a horse to draw it, and 
arrangements were made to hire a horse for a given sum in case 
of fire. 

In 1877 it was deemed advisable to procure a larger hose car- 
riage for the Center and also to provide an extension ladder. 

When the "• William Penn Horse Hose " carriage was brought 
into use it became necessary to make a change, so the horse be- 
longing to the department was put on the hose carriage and 
arrangement was made with Albert Needham to furnish a horse 
for the hook and ladder carriage. The horse was boarded at the 
Arlington House stables, kept by Charles 8. Jacobs, at an expense 
of about two hundred and fifty dollars per year. When the fire 
alarm was sounded the hostler usually mounted the horse and 
got him to the carriage on Broadway as quickly as possible. 
The horse was used some by the highway department, bringing 
in an income of from twenty-five to one hundred dollars a year. 
The horse for the hook and ladder carriage was furnished by 
Albert Needham for se\eral years at an expense of about five 
dollars per fire. 

For several years there were no additions to the department 
and no unusual expense except the addition of cotton rubber- 
lined hose each year to take the place of the old leather hose 
which was rapidly becoming useless, and the annual appropria- 
tions A'aried from $1500 to $2500 each year. The chief engi- 
neer had recommended a new Iniilding for the Highland Company 
for several vears, and in 1883 the town voted for a new brick 



278 Town of Arlington 

building on the site of the building then in use, and it was built 
in 1883 and 1884. 

The membership at this time consisted of 37 men as follows: 
one chief engineer, two assistants, 12 men to each hose car- 
riage and 10 to the Hook and Ladder Company. Assistant 
Engineer William S. Gibson died Oct. 30, 1883. 

A bell Avas placed in the tower of the Broadway House in 1883. 
Weight is 1,029 pounds costing, with expense of remodeling the 
tower, $486.51. The bell on '' Highland" building weighs 1,597 
pounds and cost $525.40. In 1886 '' Highland Hose" wagon was 
purchased. 

About this time the demands of the easterly section of the 
town were met by organizing " Eagle Hose Company " and turn- 
ing over to their use apparatus discarded by the " Highland " 
company. The experiment of a company there did not prove 
wholly satisfactory and two years ago the company was dis- 
banded, improved facilities at the Center giving that section full 
protection. 

In 1889 the continued efforts of Chief Charles Gott were suc- 
cessful, and a chemical engine of the most approved pattern gave 
to Arlington the best all-around piece of apparatus it has ever 
had. At the same time the Gamewell System of Fire Alarm was 
introduced, bringing the department to a high state of efficiency. 

From time to time there have been additions and changes to 
meet wear and tear and maintain a high standard of excellence, 
and with wires under ground, the latest appliances in the room in 
Town Hall devoted to alarm signal, a degree of efficiency has been 
reached well expressed by ]\Ir. George Y. Wellington, the vet- 
eran insurance agent, in the following article he contributed to 
the leading insurance journal: 

The intelligent cooperation of the fire, water, and building 
departments of the town of Arlington, Mass., during the past 
few years, has resulted in establishing a very low loss record for 
the town and placing it in this respect in the front rank of New 
England communities of equal size. The fire department has 
proven itself particularly efficient during the past few years and 
the credit for its present excellent condition is largely due to 



Past and Present 279 



the efforts of Chief Charles Gott, who has been in charge for the 
past twenty-six years. He has been handicapped at various 
times by the failure of the townspeople to accept his recommen- 
dations for additional expenditures for improvement in the de- 
partment, but by dint of hard work he has generally succeeded 
in securing the improvements desired. 

At present the department maintains three fire stations well 
equipped with apparatus and men. There are two drivers in the 
houses dm'ing the day and at night there is a sufficient number 
of men for all the apparatus. No steamers are required because 
of the excellent high and low pressure water service. All of the 
apparatus is in good repair and the hose is in good condition. 
The houses are advantageously located so that all sections of 
the town are well covered. The fire alarm system, considered 
b}' the Gamewell people as one of its banner installations, is in 
excellent condition and is supplemented by an air whistle on 
the Town Hall, which sounds in conjunction with the bell alarm. 
The department also has an arrangement with the telephone 
headquarters whereby notification is simultaneously given to all 
stations when a fire call is made over the telephone. 

The w^aterworks supply consists of a high and low pressure ser- 
vice and for two miles through the center of the town, both 
supplies are available for fire fighting. The high pressure service 
extends along one side of jMassachusetts avenue, and Chief Gott 
states that at any point a pressure of one hundred pounds can be 
obtained. The low pressure system extends along the opposite 
side of the street and has a pressure always available of forty- 
five to fifty pounds. The low pressure service also extends 
through the residential section. 

The building department is efficient and the building laws are 
strictly enforced. All wiring is installed in accordance with the 
requirements of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, under 
the inspection of R. W. LeBaron, inspector of wires and super- 
intendent of fire alarms. Great attention has been paid to 
bringing old installations up to date, and so far there is no record 
of a fire having originated in Arlington through defective wiring. 

The Arlington Firemen's Relief Association was organized 
Feb. 5, 1891, and chartered JIarch, 1891. The object of this 
association is to assist the members in case of accident, sickness, 
or death, and the membership consists of the active members, 
and the past members who have served it and show an honor- 



280 Town of Arlington 

able discharge from the department. There is an annual assess- 
ment and other assessments from time to time as needed. The 
Board of Government consists of the president, vice-president, 
secretary, and treasurer, and one director from each company, 
all of which must be active members. Sick benefits are five 
dollars for active and three dollars for past members per week, 
and a death benefit equal to one dollar for each member of the 
association. The association has been very fortunate so far in 
having donations and a considerable amount from the annual 
ball, so that they now have quite a surplus in the treasury, 
and the assessments have been light on the members as it should 
be, for if any class of men are entitled to recognition and sup- 
port of our citizens it is the firemen, for they are ready to defend 
our homes and our lives from the ravages of fire; so when the 
members of the association ask you to purchase a ticket to the 
annual ball you know by so doing you will help a worthy object. 

The Arlington Veteran Firemen's Association was organized 
Jan. 1, 1899, with the following officers: president, Warren A. 
Peirce; vice-president, Charles Gott and T. J. Donohoe; secre- 
tary, Edw. W. Schwamb; treasurer, George Hill. The association 
is composed mostly of members and ex-members of the fire 
department. The town has generously given them the old hand 
engine Eureka and given the use of a hall for a nominal rental. 
The association has spent nearly a thousand dollars for repairs 
on the old machine. The company took the second prize for 
playing at Fall River in 1899. 

Their motto is friendship, harmony, and hospitality; the object 
is to unite the Veteran Firemen and create an interest attending 
musters with the old machine which our fathers enjoyed so much 
and are delighted to talk about; also as members of the New 
England League to establish and perpetuate a mutual friend- 
ship throughout New England among the old firemen of hand 
tub days. There are now seventy associations covering almost 
every section of New England, banded together, who through 
their representatives compose the New England States Veteran 
Firemen's League. 



Past and Present 



281 




5 ? 



SECTION NINE 



BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 



MARKET GARDENING IN ARLINGTON 
By Warren W. Rawson 

NO history of the town of Arlington can be complete without 
mention of the market gardening industry with which 
Arlington has been so closely identified. Market gardening has 
been for over fifty years the principal business of the town and 
Arlington stands today at the head of the list of the market 
garden towns of the country. 

The most prominent of the early market gardeners were Stephen 
Symmes, Luke Wyman, William Whittemore, Albert Winn, A. 
Peirce Cutter, Cyrus Cutter, Elbridge Farmer, Thomas P. 
Peirce, John A. P. Peirce, Benjamin Locke, Henry J. Locke, 
George Hill, Varnum Frost, John P. Wyman, Abner Wyman, 
Abbott Allen, Frost & Fisher, George Peirce, Walter Russell, 
Charles H. Crane, Joseph Butterfield, Addison Brooks, Josiah 
Crosby, Davis Locke, David Puffer, John Fillebrown, Abner 
Peirce, Ephraim Tufts, Warren Rawson. 

The territorj^ cultivated by these thirty men has seen many 
changes in the past forty years. Some of the land is still used 
for market gardening, only in a far more intense form, while 
other sections have been cut up for house lots in order to keep 
pace with the rapid growth of the town. There are over fifty 
men doing business today on less land than twenty-fi\'e were 
using fifty years ago. 

At the present time the value of the land that is still culti- 
vated is many times what it was fifty years ago. Land that 
was taxed at that time for one hundred dollars per acre is now 

282 



Past and Present 283 



assessed for i'lxe hundred dollars to one thousand dollars per 
acre. The crops grown ha^■e also increased enormously in value 
and the town of Arlington today produces more value per acre 
than any other town in the United States. 

This result has l)een attained by the introduction of new 
methods of cultivation and the use of glass for forcing, and 
today there are o\'er one hundred acres of hothouses in the 
town devoted solely to the forcing of vegetables. 

By reason of careful study and intelligent application of the 
results of experiments, the business of mai-ket gardening has 
become a science, and unquestionably the credit for the greater 
part of this advancement must be given to the market garden- 
ers of Arlington. To some of these men the world is indebted 
for the introduction of new varieties and the improvement of 
old varieties which have proved to be of the greatest value. 

It will be of great interest to many to read of the changes 
that have taken place in the different sections of the town and 
note the passing of old landmarks and the erection of new ones. 

The Peirce farms at the Heights were sold to the Heights 
Land Company and are now largely occupied by dwelling houses. 
The property at the "foot of the rocks" cultivated by John A. 
P. Peirce has also been taken for building purposes. The Abel 
Peirce place is now occupied by his son, Augustus Peirce. 
Elbridge Farmer's land is at present owned by his son, Edwin 
S. Farmer, and is carried on by Charles Peirce. A little farther 
down Massachusetts avenue is the Bo wen Russell place, now 
occupied by his son, Ira Russell. The Benjamin and Henry 
Locke farm, also on Massachusetts avenue, is now carried on by 
Mr. Locke's daughter, Mrs. Sprague, and is at present one of the 
most desiral)Ie places for l)uilding in the town. The Cyrus 
Cutter farm on Summer street is cultivated by his three sons, 
Waldo, Edward and Charles. Next to them is the A. P. Cutter 
place carried on by A. Peirce Cutter and his son. Farther up 
Summer street is a piece of land occupied by P. Mead & Sons 
and beyond them are Oman Bennett and Irwin Brothers. 

The farm of Stephen Symnies above Mystic street is culti- 
vated by Frank Frost. Xear him is the Luke Wyman place now 



284 To^vn of Arlington 

farmed b}' Patterson and Henderson and the old Huffmaster 
property now carried on by C. P. Blake. Coming down Mystic 
street we come to the William Whittemore farm, which was 
bought by John S. Crosby and is now carried on by him and 
his son. J. Howell Crosby. Adjoining is the Albert Winn place 
at present occupied by his son, George P. Winn. 

On Pleasant street Messrs. George and Arthur Hill carry on 
the farm of their father, Mr. George Hill. On Massachusetts- 
avenue, near what is now Wyman street, was the farm of John 
P. Wyman which is now devoted largely to dwelling houses, 
though a part of it is cultivated at present by his son, Joseph 
P. Wyman. John P. and Abner Wyman separated at the close 
of the war and Abner located on Lake street, which place is now 
carried on by his sons, Frank and Daniel, under the name of 
Wyman Brothers. The Josiah Crosby farm, also on Lake street^ 
is now in the hands of his three sons, Walter, Charles, and Edgar. 

William H. Allen, son of Abbott Allen, occupies the old place 
on Massachusetts avenue and he also carries on the John Fille- 
brown farm on Warren street, the Joseph Butterfield place on 
Lake street, and the farm formerly occupied by Addison Brooks 
on Lake street, which was sold by Mr. Brooks to James A. Mar- 
den, who later sold to ^Ir. Allen. 

George Peirce farm on Massachusetts avenue has been pur- 
chased by John Lyons and is now nearly covered with green- 
houses. Opposite is the old Ephraim Tufts property. This is 
now occupied by Daniel L. Tappan, who also cultivates a part of 
the David Puffer place. The land formerly used by Walter 
Russell is now owned by the John P. Squire estate and carried 
on by John J. Lyons, who recently purchased a nimiber of acres 
on Lake street. 

The Davis Locke place, since called "Goat Acre," has been 
partly built over and divided up into several farms now occu- 
pied respectively by Purcell Brothers, Martin Hines and Stines 
Brothers. Farther up Broadway and extending back to the 
river, is the William H. Whittemore farm sold a number of years 
ago to George D. Moore and now occupied by him and his son, 
M. Ernest ^Nloore. 



Past and Present 285 



The farm bought by Warren Rawson of Joseph Mott in 1845, 
was carried on by Mr. Rawson till 1872, when it was sold to his 
son, Warren W. Rawson, who occupies it today. The latter 
also purchased in 1880 the lot of land at corner of Medford and 
Warren streets, owned by the William H. Wliittemore estate. 
This property is now entirely covered with greenhouses, a cut 
of which will be found on another page. This lot of land on 
which Mr. Rawson has his residence is probably the most valuable 
piece of land in this section devoted to market gardening and has 
been the scene of many experiments which ha"\'e proved of great 
value to market gardeners; among which are sterilization of the 
soil and the use of electricity in the forcing of crops, not only by 
arc lights but also by means of currents through the soil. 

A great many improvements have been made in all of the 
farming lands of Arlington. Fine residences and scores of green- 
houses have been built, increasing greatly the value of the differ- 
ent properties. 

It will be seen from the above that in the majority of instances 
the old places are now in the hands of the sons of the pioneer 
market gardeners of the town, which in itself speaks well for the 
prosperity of the business. 

The men engaged are all well-to-do and as citizens have pro^■ed 
themselves to be of inestimable ^^alue to the town not only in a 
financial way as they pay the greater part of the taxes, but also 
politically, for many of them have given years of valuable service 
as officers in the town government. 



286 Town of Arlington 



MIDDLESEX AQUEDUCT COMPANY 

Though jMiddlesex Aqueduct Company can claim, and prove 
by its old record book, that a compan}^ to supply dwellings with 
water for domestic purposes existed in what is now Arlington 
one hundred and eight years ago, the significance is weakened when 
it has to be admitted that the "corporation" consisted of the 
members of a single firm and that only the dwellings owned and 
occupied by themselves or their tenants were benefited by tak- 
ing advantage of the general laAv, passed in 1799, under which 
rights were obtained and privileges enjoyed. 

An item picked here and a brief record found elsewhere, makes 
it certain that William Whittemore & Co., as a corporation, and 
" Square" Whittemore, as an individual stockholder, made up 
the original "Middlesex Water Company." It is also true that 
under the same name and from the identical spring, the legal 
successors of the original corporation are now supplying water 
to at least two dozen families on ^lassachusetts avenue and 
Pleasant street. 

A single paragraph will dispose of the early history of this 
company. William Whittemore & Co. built at a convenient 
distance from the house of the senior partner, in the year 1799, 
a large brick reservoir fifteen feet in diameter, twelve feet deep, 
and connected it by means of a conduit made of pump logs with 
a large spring on the land of Nehemiah Cutter, east of Highland 
avenue and not far from the line of the Henry J. Locke farm, 
the spring and twelve rods square of land being secured under 
the act. The height of this spring above the level of the avenue 
gave a good pressure at i\Ir. Whittemore's house, and he built 
a fountain in the front yard. The Whittemore people were the 
only users of this spring water until 1829. 

Nov. 30, 1829, Mr. Whittemore sold two shares of his stock 
to Deacon Ephraim Cutter, one share to William Cotting, 
retaining fourteen shares. The record of this meeting reads, 
"Voted, that the aqueduct be repaired as soon as may be and a 
lead pipe substituted for wooden pump logs rotted out." To 



Past and Present 287 

repair the sprin"; house cost $15.61; the laying of new pipe, 
$683.06. 

May 7, 1832, the names of Thomas H. and George C. Kassell 
appear as holders of stock. 

June 25, 1832, the following petition was presented to the 
selectmen: 

The undersigned respectfully petition for the right to lay a 
water pipe from the dwelling of William Whittemore, passing 
the ha}' scales, crossing ground between burying ground and 
meetinghouse, straight to the house of Jesse Bucknam, then to 
the house of Ammi Cutter. 

William Whittemore, 
Eph. Cutter, 
William Cutting. 

The minute on the records of the selectmen is: 

"Permit granted, provided petitioners do not interfere with 
public travel.'' The records of the water company show that 
later John Jarvis became a member and that the pipe was 
extended to the Lane homestead. Jesse P. Pattee having pur- 
chased the Cotting Bakery and other buildings of the Cotting 
estate, appears as a shareholder in June, 1837, and at intervals 
thereafter the names of John Fillebrown, John R. Daniels, John 
Schouler, Lewis P. Bartlett, Nathan Robbins, Abel G. Peck, 
Benjamin Poland and Thomas Ramsdell appear on the record 
as holders of stock and water takers. 

After some years a reducing of the water supply ail along the 
line led to an investigation. It was found that in several places 
the roots of trees had gripped the water jaipe with a force suffi- 
cient to nearh' close it. Iron pipes were then substituted. 

At a meeting of the corporation held July 20, 1880, it was 
voted to increase the number of shareholders to forty-three, to 
rela}'- the main pipe with galvanized iron, and to petition the 
legislature for right to take land. The fii'st propositions were 
carried out. On the last, the petitioners were given leave to 
withdraw. 

At the present time there are twenty-five shareholders and 
twenty-four families are supplied by the corporation. 



288 Town of Arlington 



ICE HARVESTING ON SPY POND 

Cutting ice from Spy Pond and storing for use in the summer 
season, began in a small way nearly three quarters of a century 
ago. There are in general circulation several conflicting stories 
as to when, where, and by whom the business was started. 
A gravestone in Mount Pleasant Cemetery to the memory of 
William Fletcher (he died Feb. 26, 1853) is lettered, "He is the 
first man that ever carried ice to Boston for merchandise." The 
late Charles Hill who died Dec. 27, 1900, aged eighty-five years, 
old the writer that prior to the coming of the Addison Gage 




BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF SPY POND 



Company, or its predecessor, he was superintendent of ice cutting 
on Spy Pond for Peirce & Hall. 

These and similar statements are interesting if not specially 
pertinent to a sketch of the ice interests which later took control 
of the business. It is a matter of record that since 1840 ice cut- 
ting on Spy Pond has been an important industry, with a steadily 
increasing volume of business and no larger or better crop has 
ever been housed here than in this year 1907. 

Ice cutting to supply Boston market men was begun on Fresh 
Pond in Watertown in 1835, and the little line of railroad from 
Charlestown to this pond, on which the ice was transported, 
was the beginning of the Fitchburg railroad. The success of 
this business venture doubtless suggested the securing of rights 
at Spy Pond in Arlington. 



Past and Present 289 



In 1S40 Ciage. Hittinger & Co. erected houses for storage of 
ice on Little Spy and Spy Pond and later built a spur track to 
connect with the road to Charlestown. These houses were 
enlarged from time to time until they covered a wide area, as 
Gage, Sawyer & Co. succeeded the original firm and gave place 
at last to the Addison Gage Ice Company that for years con- 
trolled all this business. Addison Ciage died in 1868 and was 
succeeded by his son. Charles O. Gage. 

In 1871 the northerly ]>ortioii of Spy Pond was brought into 
use as a harvest field by the erection of the large building still 
located near the foot of Pond Lane. Not many years later the 
adjoining buildings to the westward were added to the plant of 
Addison Gage Com pan}'. 

The last building of the series on the northerly shore was 
erected mainly to supply local trade carried on first by H. D. 
and W. S. Durgin. To this business C. W. Ilsley succeeded. 
It is now controlled by the Arlington & Belmont Ice Co. 

Possibly no business within our limits has witnessed as 
marked changes in methods or in markets for its products as 
in the case with this industry. Formerly a considerable army of 
men and a large number of horses were required, for most of 
the harvesting was by hand. No special skill was required on 
the part of laborers, but to secure efficient work, men of good 
judgment and executive ability were required. For these respon- 
sible places Addison Gage Ice Company secured the services of 
the four Durgin brothers, James, Horace D., and B. Frank, for 
Arlington (the latter two having latel}^ returned from the army) , 
their brother John Durgin for the Wenham plant, and for many 
years all were trusted servants of the company. A nephew, 
Winfield S. Durgin, and a grandson of James Durgin, J. Edward 
Kimball, are still connected with the business. 

During the harvesting time, above alluded to, daily payment 
of wages was the custom and to facilitate this the paymaster 
of the company (usually Charles O. Gage or Reuben W. Hopkins) 
distributed among the men printed cards representing a day's 
work or that portion of a day during N\hich the man receiving 
the voucher had rendered service. These were redeemable at 



290 



Town of Arlington 



the Boston office; but Arlington storelveepers were glad to 
exchange goods for these checks for their face value, and the 
Boston office had little to do with redeeming individual checks. 

The introduction of machinery for handling the ice and 
improved methods of scoring, chiseling, etc., have so reduced 
the call for men that the harvesting of the ice crop is no longer 
a local event of importance to the larger share of day laborers. 

Prior to the War of the Rebellion, Add'son Gage Ice Company 
had for a market the southern states, shipping the ice by sailing 
vessels from Boston. The war at once put a stop to all such 
shipments, but the enterprising firm easily found customers 




CUTTING ICE ON SPY POND 



nearer home and after the war no strenuous effort was made to 
reestablish the southern trade. 

The accompanying illustration, reproduced from a photograph 
recently taken while men Avere at work harvesting ice on Spy 
Pond, illustrates with sufficient clearness present methods of 
gathering the crop and the comparatively small number of men 
required to handle the same. 

The great row of houses near the Belmont line was burned 
on the evening of ]\Iay 30. 1S94, and was not rebuilt. As in this 
fire all the old records of the company were destroyed, it is 
impossible to supplement this sketch with details interesting to 
all, but perhaps what has been written will be ample. 



Past and Present 291 



THE SCHWA MB BROTHERS 

The Sclnvainb brothers emigrated from Germany to America 
between 183<S and '68. The oldest, Jacob, a cabinet-maker, 
came to Boston in 1838, whore he estabhshed himself in business. 
Charles came to this town in 1848 and apprenticed himself to 
Paul F. Dodge, then carrying on a wood-turning and sawing and 
also a piano hardware business at what is now 1171 Massachusetts 
avenue. Later Charles went into the business with Mr. Dodge. 

Peter came here in 1850 and learned his trade of ^Ir. Dodge 
and his brother Charles. Theodore came in 1853, and the same 
year Jacob came also and entered into partnership with his 
brother Charles. Peter and Theodore later entered into part- 
nership with them, under the firm name Charles Schwamb and 
Brothers. In 1858 Frederick joined his brothers, and the partner- 
ship continued until 1862, when it was dissolved. Charles and 
Frederick continued business at the old stand; Jacob established 
himself in Boston; Theodore began the manufacture of piano- 
cases over the department store now 1093 ^lassachusetts avenue. 

In 1865 Charles and Frederick purchased the Woodbridge 
Spice ^lill on Lowell street near ^lassachusetts avenue. In 
1867 Frederick removed to Chicago and his brother Charles con- 
tinued alone. The business established by Charles is now carried 
on b}' his grandsons, under the firm name Clinton W. Schwnmli 
& Co. 

In 1871 Theodore purchased the Stephen Cutter Mill buildings 
and in 1872 transferred his business, his brother Jacob building a 
new shop at 1033 ^Massachusetts avenue near Brattle street. The 
business established by Theodore has been continuous as well 
as prosperous, and in 1897 was incorporated as The Theodore 
Schwamb Company. It continues in the manufacture of piano- 
forte cases at the location used by the brothers at the beginning. 
Recent additions to this plant make it one of the largest manu- 
facturing establishments of the town. Of the brothers coming 
to this count rv Theodore is the onlv one now living. 



292 



Town of Arlington 



THE RUSSELL STORE 

The passing of the "Russell Store," corner of Massachusetts 
avenue and Water street, calls for some notice at the present 
time. It is not definitely known who built the store and dwell- 
ing house of which it was a part. History says that Thomas 
Russell, son of Jason, had a well-established grocery there in 
1773, but it is calculated that the house was built some twenty- 




■»-- »«. - 'Kg.-'^-y. ^■>- 



'.^^-^-^ ^-. — ; ^-- 



RUSSELL GROCERY 



three years prior to this and the section devoted to the store 
built on some years after. At any event it would be safe to 
place the date of the original structure as 1750. He pursued 
the business through all the vicissitudes of the War of the Revo- 
lution until 1809, and died at the age of fifty-eight. He was 
succeeded by his oldest son and namesake, Col. Thomas Russell, 
who was succeeded by his son, Thomas J. Russell, when failing 
health obliged the older :\Ir. Russell to retire. Thomas J.'s son, 
Thomas H. Russell, then became the proprietor of this ancient 
store. He was the fourth grocer of the same name and family. 
This store seems to have been the center of the village and 



Past and Present 293 



was then surrounded l)y the town green and all the town's activ- 
ities centered around it. The post office was once offered to 
Colonel Russell, but was declined on account of the small com- 
pensation. The local letters were brought to the store, pinned 
to a post, and the ''expectant ones" called for them, thus saving 
the high postage of those early days. In the time of the first 
storekeeper, the business was done chiefly by barter, the cur- 
rency of the colony being so fluctuating as to have no reliable 
value. A bushel of corn or grain was used as a standard of 
value. The leading commodities were rum, molasses, codfish, 
calico, and some imported fabrics for women's wear. Three hogs- 
heads of rum were disposed of weekly. The price after the war 
was two shillings, threepence per gallon, or thirty-seven and 
one-half cents. The liquor was not all consumed by the people 
of Menotomy. This store was a favorite stopping place for the 
teamsters and drovers of cattle who passed through from Ver- 
mont and New Hampshire with their loads of farm produce 
and exchanged them for foreign goods in Boston. It was thus 
that the patronage of the store, which was in a certain respect 
a highway ta^-ern, was ^•ery large by the dusty and thirsty over- 
land travelers. 

AboA'e the grocery store was a good sized hall some twenty- 
five or more feet in length. It had an arched ceiling, which 
gave it more height than one would expect from the exterior of 
the building, the arch being carried into the gable, thus econo- 
mizing space and giving the hall a light, airy effect, in spite of 
its being low posted on its two sides from the junction of the 
spring of the arch. This hall was the center of the social and 
civic life of the town in the earlv days and was the popular gath- 
ering place for meetings and festivities. We are told of a meet- 
ing of the "Precinct" held in the hall as long ago as Jan. 9, 
1805. It was here that .Mr. Eli Rol)bins, of Le.xington, had a 
dancing school, where he taught to the young West Cambridge 
youth ^loney Musk, the Virginia Reel, and perhaps the stately 
minuet. The hall was likewise the armory of the West Cam- 
bridge Light Infantry. Here was held also, at one time, a school 
for ])()ys, taught by William W. Wellington, and some few of 



294 Town of Arlington 



our oldest citizens will recall many an enjoyable family party 
held in the old hall, as well as stirring political and citizens' 
meetings. 

Like all structures of those days, it was strongly built with 
heavy timbers. Facing the street it had two and one half 
stories, but in the rear the roof sloped to one story and was 
flanked by a massive chimney, as large as many a room, con- 
taining the open fireplace, brick oven, and all the features that 
made the chimney the veritable heart of the house for our fore- 
fathers. The building was located squarely to the south and on 
an angle to present lines of IMassachusetts avenue. The massive 
timbers and wide boards, put together with wooden pins and 
wrought iron nails, had stood bravely exposed to the elements 
for more than a century and a half. "It was here that the dis- 
tressed colonists gathered to talk over their grievances after 
the memorable 19th of April, 1775; and the father of the pro- 
prietor was sleeping with his eleven comrades in the graveyard 
but a few rods away." It was also the scene of a British raid 
on the memorable 19th, when hogsheads of molasses were left 
with the taps drawn to run all over the floor, but which some 
thrifty person espied before a great deal of the valued sweets 
had escaped. 



WHITTEMORE CARD FACTORY 

The era of remarkable prosperity enjoyed by the people of 
this town from 1779 to 1812 was due to the business established 
in Menotomy in the first named year, by William Whittemore & 
Co., whose business was supplying the market with cotton and 
wool cards made by machines invented by Amos Whittemore, 
a brother of the head of the firm, the crowning production of a 
remarkably fertile brain. 

The buildings in which this card-making business was carried 
on stood to the south of the present Robbins Library site, and 



Fast and Present 295 



the stateh' dwelling erected on the northerly portion of these 
grounds by William Whittemore is now the property of the 
Misses Robbins. It was removed to its present site to make a 
place for the library building. The Amos Whittemore house is 
described quite fully on page 92. 

On pages 65 to 67 in Section Three of this volume, will be 
found a graphic description of what this enterprise accomplished 
in the upbuilding of the town, the same being an extract from a 
sermon by Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, D.D., preached on the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of his settlement as pastor of the First Parish 
Church. Any interested can readilv peruse the story, which 
need not be repeated. 

So far as regards the wonderful invention itself -(wonderful 
from the fact that it was so complete, that it remains the basal 
principle of all card making today), it is not needful here to go 
into a detailed description. Nearh- all standard works on 
mechanical inventions have devoted space to it, and in Howe's 
^'Eminent Mechanics" the invention is described with elabo- 
rate fullness of detail. This work is on the shelves of Robbins 
Library. An inscription on the Amos Whittemore tomb in old 
burving ground reads: 



^fc> fc>^ 



Amos Whittemore, born April 19, 1759. 
Died, March 27. 1828. 

Inventor of the celebrated machine for making cotton and 
wool cards, a marvelous conception of mechanical ingenuity, 
which gave him a prominent i)lace among the principal inventors 
of his age. 

In 1812 the business was sold to an incorporated company in 
New York for $150,000, so it is claimed, and the factory in this 
town was closed. Gershom and Henry Whittemore, sons of the 
inventor, revived the business in this town in 1827, but with 
less of financial success than their predecessors, and when, in 
1862, their factory was destroyed by fire, the business of card 
making was not resumed. 



296 



Town of Arlington 



SCHOULER PRINT WORKS 



James Schoulkr came to the United States in 1815, from 
Scotland, to escape being a witness against friends with, wliom 
he differed poHtically, who had become mixed up in a jilot 
against the King. He anticipated returning to his home in 
Glasgow in a short time, but finding highly remunerative emjjloy- 
ment at his trade as a calico printer at an establishment on 
Staten Island, N. Y., he sent for his family and they joined him 
in 1817. This family consisted of his wife, four sons (John, 
James, Robert, William), and a daughter, Jane. Finding the 
locality where he made a home for his family injurious to his 
wife's health, ^Ir. Schouler left the New York concern and re- 
moved with his family to Lynn. This is the man who established 
Schouler Mills here. 

Mr. Schouler bought the unoccupied Stearns Mill jiroperty on 
Mill Brook (near the foot of what is now Schouler court) and 
established there the business of calico printing, the date of the 
real estate transfer being ^larch 6, 1832. 

He was succeeded by his sons, the 
late Hon. John Schouler being head 
of the new firm created when the 
father retired to enjoy well earned 
leisure. Under their management the 
business grew to large proportions, 
but owing to the fact that after a 
considerable period the larger mills 
introduced machinery for doing their 
nwn printing, the business here grad- 
ually diminished and was at length 
given up. 

The late B. Delmont Locke and his 
brother occupied this mill for some 
time in the manufacture of cloth; then it was turned into a 
shoddy mill. While being used foi- the production of this 
material so largely in use during the war period and few 




JOHN SCHOULER 



Fast and Present 297 



succeeding years, the mill was destroyed by fire and has not 
been rebuilt. 

How large a jjlace Hon. John Schouler occupied in the develop- 
ment of this town has been shown in other sections of this work. 
His brother William early withdrew from the cloth printing 
business to enter journalism, where he was successful. During 
the war time he served as adjutant-general of the state. 



WELCH & GRIFFITHS SAW FACTORY 

Previous to the year 1830 the saws used in the United States 
were mostly imported from England. A few saws were made 
in scythe factories, but probably there was nothing in the country, 
and certainly not in the New England states, that would be 
called a saw factory. 

In 1830 Charles Griffiths left Birmingham, England, and came 
to Boston. Soon afterwards he induced a former shopmate named 
William Welch, to come to this country and join him in establish- 
ing saw making. -Mr. Welch came and they hired a shop on 
what was known as the Mill Dam in Boston, a large territory 
controlled I)y a company that had built dams and flood gates, 
and leased water ])ower to mill men for tide mills. 

At first they did all the work themselves, but as orders crowded 
on them they not only needed more help but better power. 

They found what was I'equired on ]\Iill Brook in Arlington, at 
the old site of "Tufts Mills," the privilege belonging then to 
Cyrus Cutter. Securing a ninety-nine years lease and admitting 
to the firm Charles Reeves, a file cutter, they established here 
saw making and file cutting in 1832. Three 3'ears later file cut- 
ting was abandoned, ^Ir. Reeves retiring from the firm. 

In 1838 James A. E. Bailey, a shopmate of ^lessrs. Welch & 
Griffiths, was offered an interest in the business. He left Eng- 
land early the next year and became a member of the concern, 
though the firm name was not changed. 

As business increased they added more buildings and machinery 
and supplemented water with steam power. 



298 Tow7i of Arli7igton 

In 1848 William Welch retired from the business and returned 
to England. John Hinton, a saw maker from the old shop in 
England, and Joseph J. Hewes, who was bookkeeper for the 
firm, were admitted as partners, the firm then consisting of 
Griffiths, Bailey, Hinton & Hewes, under the name of Charles 
Griffiths & Co. John Hinton retired from the firm in 1854. 

About this time William Southwell invented a machine for 
grinding circular saws, which revolutionized the whole business 
of saw grinding. With the old method of hand grinding it was 
impossible to make a saw exactly even in thickness, as the steel 
plates were never rolled perfectly true, but with this machine 
a circular saw, from two inches to seven feet in diameter, could 
be ground almost mathematically correct, and either tapered or 
concaved or made perfectly flat all over. This method also took 
away in a great measure the dangerous element of the work. 
Welch & Griffiths bought this patent, and it proved to be a very 
profitable investment for them and a great benefit to all users 
of saws. 

William Soles, foreman of the grinding shop, also perfected a 
machine for grinding hand saws and other short saws, and the 
old method of hand grinding was almost entirely done away 
with. 

These machines, or some modification of them, are in general 
use by saw manufacturers at the present day. 

These were years of great prosperity to the firm^ especially 
in the early fifties, on the opening of the California trade, and 
again in the sixties, during the war of the rebellion. New build- 
ings of brick were added and improved machinery put in, more 
men were employed and the town was benefited thereby. Before 
the war they had a good southern trade and a good deal of 
money was owing them in the southern states, but that was all 
wiped out on the commencement of hostilities. Eight men went 
from the shop into the Union army. 

In 1863 Albert Griffiths and James A. Bailey were admitted 
to the firm and business went on as usual. Joseph J. Hewes 
retired in 1867, and they then went back to the old name of 
Welch & Griffiths. In 1872 the copartnership was dissolved, 



Past and Present 299 



Charles Griffiths and Albert Griffiths remaining and taking all 
control of the business. James A. Bailey was engaged as super- 
intendent. 

In Noveml)er of that year their store on Federal street was 
burned in the great fire which swept over Boston, and a large 
stock of goods totally destroyed. Another store was opened 
and replenished with goods, and business went on until 1885, 
when the works shut down and the tools and machinery were 
sold and moA^ed awa3\ Thus after an existence of fifty-five 
years the town lost an industry which had contributed largely 
to its social and financial welfare, and it may be well said of one 
of the great industries of the countr}^ now amounting to millions 
of dollars annually, that the primary school was that old shop 
in this town. 



THE ICE TOOL INDUSTRY 

The manufacture of ice tools in Arlington dates back to the 
time when j\Ir. Abner P. Wyman added to his blacksmithing 
business the making and repairing ice tools used on the neigh- 
boring ponds. Each year found this branch of the business 
increasing. About 1841 Mr. William T. Wood came to Arling- 
ton (then West Cambridge) to learn a trade and found employ- 
ment with Mr. Wyman. In 1845 Mr. Wood purchased the 
business and carried it on until the year 1858, when he formed 
a partnership with his brother Cyrus (also a blacksmith and iron 
worker), recently returned from California. 

The old shop was pulled down azid another erected near the 
site of the present office building. 

At that time the business was confined to what these brothers 
could do with their own hands, aided only by the usual "help- 
ers." Two years later Cyrus Wood retired from the firm, bought 
the Sprague farm, and turned his attention to farming. 

In December, 1865, this shop was burned. Occurring in the 
midst of the ice season, it was a severe blow, but the energetic 



300 Town of Arlington 

proprietor was equal to the occasion, and in a few days his work- 
men were engaged in three other shops in town, filHng the orders 
that were in such active demand, and preparations for rebuilding 
were at once begun. Early the following summer the new shop 
was read}' for occupancy. 

Mr. William T. Wood died in 1871. He had built up a large 
business and made a reputation for "Wood's Ice Tools," which 
was the envy of competitors. His eldest son, Mr. William E. 
Wood, just entering early manhood, willingly laid aside other 
attractive pursuits and formed a partnership with his uncle 
C\yrus to continue the business his father had established, retain- 
ing the old firm name of Wm. T. Wood & Co. Cyrus Wood 
superintended the manufacturing, William E. looked after the 
finances and correspondence. New and improved machinery 
was added and the growth of the business has been constant 
from that time to the present. 

Ten years after the new firm was formed, the growth of the 
business had demanded new buildings equal to three times the 
capacity of the shop erected in 1865. To this group of buildings 
a two and a half story building 26 X 50 w as erected on the east 
side of the driveway to the factory, and used for stock and 
general storage. 

In 1893 failing health demanded the retirement of ^Ir. Cyrus 
Wood from active participation in the business, and his onl}' son, 
William B. Wood, who had grown up in the business, was called 
on to take his father's place as superintendent of manufacturing. 
The senior ^Ir. Wood died in the summer of 1896, and his son 
assumed his share in the business and a place in the firm. 

In 1903 an extensive addition was made to the machine shop 
by building a large wing on the front end facing Massachusetts 
avenue, and by moving the two and one half story warehouse 
from the eastern end of the yard to the western side of the 
property facing on Pond lane. In December, 1904, the wooden 
forge shop was practically destroyed by fire, and a new l^rick 
structure, fully double the size of the building destro3'ed, was 
erected to take its place. 

Feb. 1, 1905, the firm of ^\m. T. Wood & Co. consolidated 



Past and Present 301 



with the firm of Gifford Brothers of Hudson, N. Y., and formed 
the corporation of Gifford-Wood Co. The firm of Gifford Brotliers 
was estabhshed in 1814 as founders and machinists, and had 
been making ice elevating machinery for haU" a century pre- 
vious to the forming of the consohcUition. 

The two firms had identically the same customers, and as one 
was engaged exclusively in manufacturing ice elevating machinery 
and the other exclusively manufacturing ice cutting tools, it 
was deemed a wise move to carry on a combined business for 
purposes of economy in manufacturing and in selling the com- 
bined product. 

The business at this time has so grown in extent that the 
company now employs at the Arlington Ice Tool Plant one 
hundred hands, and the present floor surface of the plant aggre- 
gates over 31,000 square feet. 



FOWLE'S ARLINGTON MILLS 

The fire which in 1883 destroyed all the buildings comprised 
in this extensive plant, wiped out one of Arlington's most interest- 
ing relics, the little old mill erected long before Arlington was 
incorporated. 

It was in this little old mill that Mr. Samuel A. Fowle began 
business in 1863. Not long afterwards a building 50 X 40, two 
stories, was erected, and the grinding of drugs, paint, etc., added 
to his grinding of corn, to which purpose the old mill was devoted 
entirel}'. 

The present mill buildmgs represent a growth from time to time 
as Mr. Fowle added the manufacture of Arlington Wheat ^leal, 
the cutting of log wood and kindred operations, supplementing 
the water power with steam engines, one being of 250 horse power. 

In recent years the business has changed hands, but Mr. Fowle 
has retained an interest in the real estate, and is now connected 
with the manufacturing carried on in the main building. 

A large building in the rear has recently been leased to F. C 
Pai'ker & Son for the manufacture of leather. 



302 



Town of Arlington 







SECTION TEN 



SOCIETIES AND ASSOCTATIOXS 



HIRAM LODGE. F. AND A. :\1, 




o 



,iS account of the historical interest 
and importance of Free ^lasonry and 
))ecause the local Lodge has included in its 
membership most of the leading men of 
Arlington and has been a potent factor in 
the development of the community, a 
history of the town would be incomplete 
miless it contained at least a brief outline 
sketch of Hiram Lodge. Lexington was 
its birthplace and Arlington, since 1843, has been its home. 

On Thursda}^ evening, Sept. 7, 1797, ten Masonic Brethren 
who desired to obtain a charter for a regular Lodge in Lexington, 
met at the well kno^^n ]\Iunroe Tavern. It was determined to 
petition the Grand Lodge for a charter, the name Hiram was 
selected for the proposed Lodge, and William ]\Iunroe was desig- 
nated to be the first Worshipful blaster. Lexington was at that 
time within the jurisdiction of King Solomon's Lodge of Charles- 
town, and all of the ten petitioners had taken their degrees in 
that Lodge. The petition was presentecl to the Grand Lodge 
on September 13, and was granted on December 11, at a session 
presided over by Paul Revere. ^1. AV. Grand Master. The charter 
was issued under date of Dec. 12, 1797, but for some reason now 
unknown, Avas signed by the grand officers who were installed 
on December 27 of that .vear. 

The preliminary meetings were held in the ^lunroe Tavern in 
a room called "The Hall" on the easterly side of the house, up 
one flight. In the summer of 1798 an addition was made on the 



304 Town of Arlington 

rear of the tavern, and the second story of this addition was a 
Masonic Hall, erected for the special accommodation of the 
Lodge. In this new hall Hiram Lodge was instituted by the 
Grand Lodge on Wednesday morning, Oct. 17, 1798. After 
refreshments in the large dining room, a procession was formed 
and the brethren marched up the street and over the battlefield 
to the new meetinghouse where the sermon of consecration was 
preached. 

The charter members were William ^lunroe, David Fiske, 
James Brown, Darius Shaw, Levy Mead, Jonathan Harrington, 
Jr., Jonas Bridge, Abijah Harrington, Jonathan Bridge, and 
Joseph Smith, Jr. 

William Munroe was the Orderly Sergeant of Captain Parker's 
Company on April 19, 1775, and called the roll on that fateful 
day. Jonathan Harrington, Jr., then a boy of sixteen, was the 
fifer who with shrill notes stirred the breasts of that gallant 
band. Others of the charter members served in the War of 
the Revolution, and they were all prominent and respected 
citizens in the community. 

Regular meetings were held, much interest was taken in 
Masonry, and the Lodge prospered until the Anti-Masonic storm 
broke forth. Long and furiously it raged. Friends became 
estranged, families divided, churches rent in twain, and lodge 
after lodge fell. When the storm in its strength reached Lex- 
ington the attendance at the meetings of the Lodge grew smaller 
and smaller, and finally Hiram Lodge ceased to meet. Little 
remained for the brethren to do but to wait patiently, greet each 
other quietly, and mourn over the desolation until the storm 
passed and a new day dawned. 

The last record of Hiram Lodge, prior to the suspension of its 
meetings, is dated Jan. 27, 1831. The Lodge re-elected the offi- 
cers of the preceding year, Hon. James Russell of West Cam- 
bridge being Worshipful Master, and was then closed to stand 
closed until the Thursday preceding the full of the moon in 
February next. For twelve years and six months, so far as the 
Lodge records inform us, Hiram Lodge did not meet. The 
spirit of many of its members is shown by the fact that seven of 



Past and Present 305 



them, including- the Worshipful ^Master, signed the celebrated 
declaration of Dec. 31, 1831, signif^ang that they would neither 
renounce nor al^andon the ]\Iasonic institution, an act requiring 
at that time courage in a high degree. 

Many West Cambridge men were members of Hiram Lodge, 
and on Aug. 14, 1843, ten Masons living in West Cambridge, 
most of whom were members of Hiram Lodge, signed the follow- 
ing instrument: 

We, the subscribers, members of the .Ancient Order of Free- 
masons, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of the Com- 
monwealth of ^Massachusetts, agree to meet as Brethren, and not 
as a Lodge, in some convenient place in West Cambridge, for the 
purpose of mutual improvement in the Masonic arts and cere- 
monies, as often as once a month, and that we mutually bind 
ourselves each to the other to pay our just proportion of the 
expenses of such meeting. 

Li order that the place of the first meeting might be more 
central and accommodate Lexington Masons as well as those 
living in West Cambridge, the meeting was held at Cutler's 
Tavern in East Lexington. 

On motion of Thomas Thorpe, it was voted that Hiram Lodge 
be reorganized, and a committee was chosen to wait on the late 
Master of Hiram Lodge and request him to call a meeting of said 
Lodge, Dec. 4, 1843. Committees were also appointed to learn 
upon what terms the Odd Fellows' Halls in Lexington and West 
Cambridge could be obtained, and the regalia was collected and 
moved to Monument Hall, East Lexington. 

The Worshipful .Master, James Russell, called a meeting of 
Hiram Lodge, as requested, for Dec. 4, 1843, in Monument Hall, 
at which the officers lectured on the first degree. At another 
meeting held Dec. 11, it was voted to petition the Grand Lodge 
for the removal of Hiram Lodge from Lexington to West Cam- 
bridge, officers were elected, and a committee chosen to close a 
bargain with Bethel Lodge of Odd Fellows for the use of their 
hall in West Cambridge. 

Dec. 27, 1843, the Grand Lodge granted the prayer of the peti- 
tioners and Hiram Lodge was legally removed from Lexington 



306 Town of Arlington 

to West Cambridge, where for many years it met in Bethel Hall, 
better known as jMenotomy Hall, over the Old Bakery. The 
first meeting after the removal to West Cambridge was held in 
Bethel Hall, Jan. 4, 1844; the furniture of the Lodge was removed 
from Lexington to West Cambridge, and meetings were held 
weekly. 

LTntil 1848 Hiram Lodge and Bethel Lodge occupied the hall 
jointly, but on the temporary demise of Bethel Lodge in 1850, 
Hiram Lodge became the sole occupant. From time to time com- 
mittees were appointed to consider the subject of a new meeting 
place for the Lodge, and on Oct. 22, 1863, it was voted that the 
new hall called Russell's Hall, at the corner of Main and Medford 
streets, be leased for a term of years. A lease was executed, a 
committee of the Lodge proceeded to furnish the apartments, the 
liall was made attractive, and the anterooms comfortably fur- 
nished. On Wednesday evening, June 15, 1864, solemn and 
impressive services of dedication were held. An interesting 
feature was the presentation of a Bible to the Lodge from the 
mothers, Avives and daughters of the members, the presentation 
xiddress being made by Brother Joseph S. Potter. 

For more than forty years this hall has been the home of Hiram 
Lodge. Here its meetings have been held, its degrees conferred, 
its entertainments, dances, and strawberry festivals given. Its 
prosperity has been continuous, and its membership has increased 
from the limit of fifty in its early years to 250 at the present 
time. It has ever been ready to assist the widows and orphans 
of deceased ]\Iasons, having expended in charity more than two 
thousand five hundred dollars in the last half century. Among 
its members who achieved special distinction in Masonry were 
Samuel C. Lawrence, Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts; 
Isaac Hull Wright and Jesse P. Pattee, Grand Wardens; James 
Russell and William E. Parmenter, District Deputy Grand Mas- 
ters; and George W. Storer, Grand Warden and District Deputy 
Grand Master. 

Thirty-three Masons who took their degrees in Hiram Lodge 
served their country in the Civil War, including Major Albert S. 
Ingalls, who commanded the local company, and Lieutenant 



Past and Present 307 



Francis Gould, for whom the local" G. A. R. Post is named. 
The most notable of many important occasions in the life of the 
Lodge was the elaborate and highly interesting celebration in 
December, 1897, of the one hundredth anniversary of the grant- 
ing of its charter. 

On Feb. 18, 1867, ^lenotomy Royal Arch Chapter was conse- 
crated, and its officers installed in Masonic Hall. Here it has 
continued with marked success and steadily increasing member- 
ship to the present time. 



308 Town of Arlington 



BETHEL LODGE, NO. 12, I.O.O.F. 

This organization is the second oldest secret society in 
Arlington and like the Masons, who occnpy first place, has a 
long break in its books of record because for several years active 
operation was suspended. Fortunately the original books of 
record and all important papers were preserved and returned to 
the custody of Bethel Lodge when it was reinstated in 1866, so 
that now the officers control a wealth of material from which 
to prepare a fuller history than would be suitable for these pages. 

April 16, 1842, John Vaughton, jMichael Kenney, Rev. J. C. 
Waldo, Ichabod Fessenden, met by invitation at the residence 
of John Schouler and these five decided to unite in forming a 
lodge of Odd Fellows in Arlington. Meetings at Mr. Schouler's 
followed until S'eptember 13, when the lodge was instituted by 
the Grand Master and officers of the Grand Lodge and the fol- 
lowing list of officers were installed: Noble Grand, John Vaughton; 
Vice-Grand, John Schouler; secretary, Michael Kenney; treas- 
urer, Rev. J. C. Waldo; conductor, Ichabod Fessenden. 

The other officers and members present at this institution were 
Joshua Caldwell, Paul F. Dodge, John B. Hartwell, James Esta- 
brooks, Duncan Macfarlane, Edward Wilson, William Hanson, 
James Wyman. At the next meeting, September 20, William L. 
Clark and Jesse P. Pattee joined the lodge. 

This meeting was held in Menotomy Hall, and at the next 
meeting, September 27, it was voted to accept the proposition 
of the Orthodox Congregational Society (then holding the hall 
under lease) to rent the hall once a week for one year. Mr. John 
B. Hartwell was hired to take care of the hall, at a salary of 
thirty-five dollars. 

The initiation fee of the lodge was five dollars and the degrees 
(there were five degrees) two dollars each; the oflficers held their 
positions for three months; there were penalties for absence and 
also for tardiness. 

"For a time the lodge flourished," says Duncan Macfarlane, 
in reminiscences given in Bethel Lodge room a few years ago, 



Past and Present 309 



"but some of the members got the benefits down so fine that if 
they were sick one da}' they had to get fifty cents for it; then 
some of the members moved away; other things worked to the 
disadvantage of the lodge. This continued until January, 1850, 
when some of the older and wiser heads thought it best to sur- 
render the charter. The things we could sell we sold; the debts 
were paid and the lodge closed." 

The old cash book shows the net proceeds of this sale to have 
been $80.56; also that the affairs were closed up honorably. 

James Wyman and Duncan Macfarlane seem to have been the 
starters of the movement among resiflent Odd P'ellows which 
resulted hi a return of the charter and reinstatement of Bethel 
Lodge. No. 12, April 28. 1866. 

During the earlier period referred to, Lexington had an Odd 
Fellows' lodge named Monument, which suffered the same fate 
as its neighbor. Those interesting themselves in reinstatement 
of Bethel Lodge acted more wisely and not only included Lex- 
ington in its membership but went to Woburn and Cambridge 
for members. The i-esult was a. strong and prosperous organi- 
zation that has grown and strengthened with passing years and 
the town's development. 

Menotomy Hall was leased by this lodge and occupied until 
Dec. 8, 1874. when the paraphernalia was transferred to the 
handsome and commodious quarters specially prepared for the 
lodge in the then new Five Cent Savings Bank building, corner 
of Massachusetts avenue and Pleasant street. New furniture, 
new carpets, pictures and rich draperies, added to unusual con- 
veniences and coupled with ample space, made it a striking con- 
trast to the old hall, and a new era of prosperity dawned which 
nothing has checked. Since the lodge was reinstated in 1866, it 
has made 357 new members. Of this number 159 have died; 
198 are known to be alive; of this number 168 are still in good 
standing in Bethel Lodge. 

The same year the lodge took on its new lease of life the 
Rebekah Degree was established. It was to apply to the wdves 
of members and every other week this degree met with the 
lodge. Mr. ^lacfarlane savs: "We had let our hall to the Good 



310 Town of Arlington 

Templars. They had a piano. We had a member from Cam- 
bridge that played the harp and an Arlington member who could 
play the piano. Our Rebekah night was turned into a dance. 
We closed the lodge at eight, danced until ten; and we managed 
to have a glorious good time," This Rebekah Lodge is still a 
strong and flourishing organization and occupies Bethel Lodge 
quarters in conjunction with {hat organization. 



Past and Present 



311 



THE ARLINGTON BOAT CLUB 
By George B. C. Ruc.g 

More than thirty-five 3'ears ago, when Arlington was a small, 
thinly settled town, the estates on Pleasant street bordered on 
the shores of Spy Pond, and nearly every young man on the 
street owned a sail boat. 

During the summer months the beautiful sheet of water was 
daily brightened by the white-winged craft and many a spirited 
"scrub" race was sailed. As the races became more and more 
pretentious, the necessity arose for an organization, and on July 
7, 1871, a company of gentlemen met at the residence of S. 
Payson Prentiss, on Pleasant street, and formall}'" organized the 
Arlington Yacht Club, with the following as officers: commo- 
dore, S. Payson Prentiss; vice-commodore, William G. Peck; 
treasurer, Arthur Poland; secretary, Edward S. Fessenden; 
measurer, John J. Eaton, Jr. 

During the fall and winter, meetings were held at the residence 
of Commodore Prentiss and plans perfected for a clubhouse, 
which it was purposed to 
build at the foot of Spring 
Valle}^, off Pleasant street. 

The early spring saw 
work begun and on iMay 6 
the house was finished. It 
was a small, unpretentious 
structure, but large enough 
to house the yachts and 
to afford room for gather- 
ings of a social nature. 

During the next half 
dozen years the greatest 
activity prevailed and race followed race in quick succession, as 
many as ten regattas and nine challenge races being run off in 
one season. 

In July, 1879, it was voted to extend the membership of the 




FIRST A B. C. BOAT HOUSE 
At Foot of Spring Valley 



312 



Town of Arlington 



club, and the following Arlington and Cambridge young men 
were added to the membership: A. B. Osborne, Fred. H. Russell, 
Fred. E. Whiting, Walter L. Hill, Walter Stimpson, Franklin H. 
Stiles, Edgar Crosby, A. Bart. Hill, Omar W. Whittemore, James 
P. Poland, Arthur H. Richardson, George T. Freeman, George 
A. Teel, Charles E. Wharton, Herman F. Bucknam, Frank Buck- 
nam, G. Arthur Swan, Charles H. Swan. 

At the next regular meeting the name of the organization was 
changed to "Arlington Boat Club." The house was renovated, 
racing boats and athletic paraphernalia purchased, and sports 
of all kinds boomed. During the next three years one hundred 
and thirty-one members were admitted to membership. The 
club actively engaged in boat racing, baseball, glass ball shoot- 
ing and skating, and for a number of years enjoyed great pros- 
perity. On Dec. 20, 1882, owing to dissensions, the club was 
disbanded, but was reorganized Jan. 11, 1883. 

The following few years 
saw the membership increase 
at so rapid a rate that the 
old clubhouse was soon too 
small, and in the spring of 
1887 a committee was ap- 
pointed to consider the advis- 
ability of building a new 
clubhouse. Walter Stimpson, 
Walter L. Hill, G. Arthur 
Swan, Frederick M. Pettengill, 
Lewis H. Bacon, George A. 
Perkins, and R. Walter Hilliard, were intrusted with carrying 
out plans for building accepted and were subsequently incorpor- 
ated. The building now in use was dedicated April 10, 1888, 
but has been frequently enlarged and improved internally. 

The club is delightfully situated for all kinds of sport. In 
summer, rowing, canoeing, swimming and the like claim the 
attention; and on hot nights no cooler place can be found than 
the long floats extending fifty feet out over the water. All kinds 
of boats, from the daintv racing shell to the heavy, family White- 




ARLINGTON BOAT CLUB 



Past and Present 313 



hall, are owned by the club and are at the disposal of members. 
One long shed is devoted to the racing craft and contains singles, 
doubles and fours. In the other boat room are the heavy pleas- 
ure boats and the canoes, many of which are owned by members. 

Near by is a large handsomely tiled bathroom, with showers, 
tubs, and hot and cold water; while just outside, on the east 
float, is a large spring board, lively enough to satisfy the most 
fastidious diver. 

Winter games are ever}- bit as well provided for. Four regu- 
lation bowling alleys, called the fastest in the state, two pool 
and two billiard tables, and a reading room, containing all the 
best magazines and weeklies, are always ready for use. M'hile 
card and domino rooms add materially to the pleasure of the 
members. 

The club is a member of the National Association of Amateur 
Oarsmen, the New England Amateur Rowing Association, the 
Amateur Bowling League of Boston and vicinity, and the Boston 
Pin Bowling League; and many trophies scattered about the 
clubhouse attest to the skill of the teams and crews that have 
worn the A. B. C. 

Although the club is composed exclusively of men, the fair 
sex is never forgotten, and dances, whist parties and high-class 
entertainments are frequently given to which the ladies are ever 
welcome. 

Each year the club takes full charge of the Fourth of July 
fireworks for the town, setting them off from a float anchored in 
the middle of the pond, and entertaining the townspeople at the 
clubhouse. 

During its life the club has given many public entertainments, 
refined minstrelsy, short plays and light comic operas, all of 
which have been successful. 



314 Town of Arlington 



ARLINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

In response to an invitation from George Y. Wellington for 
citizens interested to meet in Pleasant Hall, about twenty-five 
ladies and gentlemen met on the evening of Friday, Nov. 19, 
1897, to discuss the advisability of forming an Historical 
Societ}'. A temporar}' organization was effected, a committee 
consisting of James P. Parmenter, Warren A. Peirce, Henry 
S. Adams, i\Irs. Ellen G. Damon, ^Irs. Maria E. Smith being 
chosen to prepare by-laws and nominate a list of officers of 
the society to be voted for at a meeting to be called by the 
committee. 

At a meeting held Dec. 7, 1897, the society was permanently 
organized, by-laws adopted and the following list of officers for 
the ensuing year elected: for president, Edward S. Fessenden; 
vice-presidents, George Y. Wellington, E. Nelson Blake; secre- 
tary, Ellen W. Hodgdon. Jan. 3, 1898, James P. Parmenter 
was added to the list of vice-presidents and Warren A. Peirce 
chosen treasurer. 

The society was incorporated April 6, 1898, and May 20, 1903, 
became a member of the Bay State Historical League. 

The objects of the society, as expressed in its by-laws, are 
"the gathering and recording of knowledge of the history of 
Arlington, and of individuals and families connected with the 
town; and the collection and preservation of printed and manu- 
script matter, and other articles of historical and antiquarian 
interest." 

In consonance with the declared purposes of the society its 
meetings have been mosth" occasions for the reading of papers 
upon subjects of historical interest, accounts of places of impor- 
tance visited by its members, biographical sketches, and remi- 
niscences of the manners and customs of the earlier inhabitants 
of the town. 

Its collection of "relics" is kept (through the courtesy of the 
trustees of the Bobbins Public Library) in a basement room of 



Past and Present 315 



the library building. This building being of fireproof construc- 
tion, the safety of the collection is thus assured, a consideration 
that should strongly appeal to those having papers, documents, 
or other articles of historical or antiquarian value which, if given 
or loaned to the society, would be conscientiously cared for. 



316 Town of Arlington 



THE ARLINGTON WOMAN'S CLUB 

In the prehistoric days of the Arlington Woman's Chib a 
small group of women were organized because of their mutual 
interest in music and literature. This club was called the 
"Orpheus and Othello Club," and its organization was due to 
the interest of the late ^Irs. E. Nelson Blake. To its existence 
the Arlington Woman's Club owes its inception. Its members 
began to say, "Why can't we have a larger club — a woman's 
club?" This cjuery many times repeated and as often answered, 
"Of course we can," soon crystallized into a definite plan. 

The Arlington Woman's Club was organized in Grand Army 
Hall May 30, 1896, at which time a constitution was adopted, 
and the temporary officers made permanent for one term of 
service. 

In an annual report of recent date there occurs this sentence: 
"That the really important changes are so few, show how wise 
were the framers of the original constitution." Not only was 
the constitution first formed largely anticipative of the future 
needs of the club, but the lines of work then determined upon 
have regulated its subsequent policy. 

The membership of the club during its first year was two hun- 
dred and forty-nine. It has since increased to three hundred, 
with a waiting list always eager to become enrolled. The exi- 
gencies of Associates' Hall (the place of meeting in recent years) 
are alone responsible for the present limit of membership. 

The club has from the first presented two programs monthly, 
from November to May inclusive. This program work has been 
admirably selected and generously supported , and whenever pos- 
sible the club has extended its hospitality to portions of the 
community that seemed likely to be benefited and entertained. 

Self-improvement has been encouraged by the maintenance of 
classes. Two classes, one in art and one in music, were organ- 
ized during the first year of the club's life, and have been per- 
manent and continuous in the quality and aim of their studies. 
Sporadic classes have been maintained in current events, politi- 



Past and, Present 317 



cal economy, nature study and literature. Politics have never 
been an active interest of the Arlington Woman's Club. 

The first president of the club, ^Irs. Charles H. Watson, set a 
standard of excellence and taste as a presiding officer that has 
since characterized the rule of subsequent presidents. Mrs. True 
Worthy White, Miss Ida F. Robbins, Mrs. Benjamin A. Norton, 
Miss Annie M. Stevens, Mrs. Charles A. Dennett, Mrs. B. N. W. 
Wolfe and Miss Mary C. Hardy have successively filled this 
office. 

In local politics the club has been interested actively in pro- 
moting the service of women on the school board. It has 
secin-ed such I'epresentation, and effected a more general regis- 
tration among women of Arlington eligible to vote for school 
officers. Local civic questions have always aroused in the mem- 
bers of the club eager altruistic interest, and in such definite 
problems as those relating to park systems, preservation of trees, 
appointment of a tree wardenf and securing increased accommo- 
dations from the Boston Elevated Railroad Company the Arling- 
ton Woman's Club has exerted a determining influence. 

In 1896 the club interested itself to secure the opening of the 
Robbins Library for additional hours each day, the reading 
room in the morning, the library every day, except Sunday, 
at 1 o'clock P.]M., and the evening and Sunday regulations. 

In 1903-1904 the club became interested in the question of 
district nursing and started a movement that has resulted in the 
permanent maintenance by the community of a District Nurse. 

Immediately following upon the organization, the club sought 
some form of concrete service to the community and chose the 
work of schoolroom decoration. The \\ork then entered upon 
has been the primary practical object of the club and is but now, 
after eleven years of unflagging devotion and interest, reaching 
completion. The resolve made by club meml^ers in 1897 and 
subsequently so well executed "to do all that we could towards 
developing a love for good art in our public schools by placing 
photographs and casts of representative works of art in the 
rooms of the primary and grammar schools," is sufficiently 
expressive of what that work has been. The club has through 



318 Town of Arlington 

this committee, with Miss Robbins as chairman, expended about 
$1150, and has placed one hundred and sixteen casts and pictures 
in the various schoolrooms of Arlington. It also brought about 
the cooperation of the School Committee in securing proper wall 
tinting and a general betterment in the cleanliness and order of 
buildings and grounds. Although perhaps lacking in historic 
event, the Arlington Woman's Club has during the first decade 
of its existence not only maintained loyally the stated purpose 
of its existence, but it has held an open mind and a free heart 
toward all problems that have affected its life whether as indi- 
vidual women, as members of a club, or as citizens of a community. 

Martha E. D. White. 



Past and Present 319 



ARLINGTON DISTRICT NURSING ASSOCIATION 

The first meeting to organize the Arlington District Nursing 
Association was held at the home of Miss Hodgdon, Feb. 17, 
1904. The plan originated in Arlington Woman's Club, it being 
a practical application of suggestions b}' Mrs. Susan Coolidge, 
from the Watertown District Nursing Association, Avho had a 
short time previous read a most interesting paper before the 
women of our club. 

The result of the meeting at ^liss Hodgdon 's was that after 
a short discussion, action was taken and a committee was chosen 
to organize a similar association in Arlington. At the outset 
the Board of Managers felt the need of placing the association 
on a firm financial basis. 

Money, it was true, was coming in from membership fees of 
one dollar each; still it was deemed necessary that the sum of 
five hundred dollars in the treasury should Ije assured before 
engaging the nurse. As a result of this conclusion it was voted 
to hold an entertainment, the proceeds of which should be given 
to the association. This entertainment took the form of a 
country circus, which was held June 17, and proved in every 
way a social and financial success. 

With the proceeds of the country circus, together with the 
assessment money and some generous contributions, the Board 
felt financially secure to proceed with the work it had under- 
taken. Although the work was started primarih' to benefit 
those who were unable to avail themselves of trained and skillful 
nursing, nevertheless in times of emergencies many of us have 
realized already the blessing of having a trained nurse available, 
ready and willing to come to render aid at a moment's notice. 
We firmly believe that as the people of Arlington become closely 
acquainted with this far-reaching charit}' they have so gener- 
ously set in motion, they will continue their liberal financial aid 
and as time goes on it will prove more and more a blessing to all. 



320 Town of Arlington 



FORESTERS OF AMERICA 

Court Pride of Arlington, No. 190, Foresters of America, is 
one of the two hundred and fifty courts comprising the juris- 
diction of Massachusetts, with a membership of about 40,000 
within the state, and about 250,000 members in the United 
States. The Court was instituted March 1, 1901, with thirty-five 
members, by Grand Chief Ranger W. H. Stafford of Lowell, at 
which time the following officers were elected and installed: chief 
ranger, D. M. Hool'ey; sub-chief ranger, P. J. ^lelly; treasurer, 
J. P, Daley; financial secretary, W. R. LeBlanck; recording 
secretary, P. J. Hussey; senior woodward, T. E. Donovan; junior 
woodward. James Munroe; senior beadle, D. R. McDonald; junior 
beadle, Jeremiah Mahoney; trustees, J. F. Dacey, J. F. Crowley, 
John Duffy; captain of the guards, A. A. Tilden; court physician, 
W. F. Donahue; court druggist, A. A. Tilden; junior past chief 
ranger, D. W. Grannan. 

The order is non-sectarian; all white males of good moral 
character are eligible to membership. 

Court Pride of Arlington pays a sick benefit of five dollars per 
week to its members, for a stated period, and one hundred dollars 
at death. The Court has at the present time a membership of 
over two hundred with the following officers: chief ranger, P. J. 
Hussey; sub chief ranger, M. J. Galvin; treasurer, D. W. Grannan; 
financial secretary, J. F. Dacey; recording secretary. Porter 
Dunlap; senior woodward, T. F. Lynch; junior woodward, 
P. Quinn; senior beadle, J. F. McCarthy; junior beadle, P. J. 
Gunning; lecturer, W. Merrigan; trustees, J. F. Crowley, R. D. 
Guarente, George Mitchell; court physician, W. F. Donahue; court 
druggist, C. W. Grossmith; junior past chief ranger, T. J. Green. 

The Court meets on the second and fourth Monday evenings 
at 8 o'clock. 



Past and Present 321 



ARLINGTON COUNCIL, 109, KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS 

The local Council was instituted in Arlin'j;ton Dec. 10, 1894, 
with a membership of only twenty-five. The order is a very- 
large one, having local Councils in every state in the Union and 
also in Canada and ^lexico. It is a Catholic fraternal and chari- 
table organization, with an insurance feature for those desiring it. 

The local Council in Arlington has steadily grown and today 
its membership is one hundred and twenty-five. It especially 
appeals to young men, and the membership is made up of the 
young, pi'ogressive, and energetic members of the Catholic faith. 

The Council rooms are pleasantly located in the Shattuck 
Building (formerly the G. A. R. headcjuarters) where the entire 
upper floor is devoted to the needs of the Council. The present 
occupants of the chairs are Thomas J. Green, grand knight; 
Daniel W. Grannan, deputy grand knight; John W. Harrington, 
warden; and John A. Bishop, chancellor. 



In addition to the societies that have furnished brief historical 
sketches, other than those contained in the body of this book, 
Arlington has the following: 

Arlington Golp" Club, leasing a well appointed building and 

extensive grounds near the Arlington line, in Belmont. 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, organized in 1876 

and actively engaged in temperance work through all these 

intervening years. 
]\liDDLESEX Sportsmen's Association, whose enforcement of 

game laws is a great service to the town, and whose annual 

exhibitions command widespread attention. 
Ancient Order LTnited Workmen, Circle Lodge, No. 77; 

Independence Lodge, No. 45. 
Charles V. Marsh Camp 45, Sons of Veterans; Francis Gould 

Woman's Relief Corps, No. 43; Building Fund Association, 

all three auxiliary to Francis Gould Post 36, G. A. R. 



322 Town of Arlington 

Menotomy Council 1781, Royal Arcanum. 

St. Malachi Court, No. 81, a society connected with St. 
Agnes' Roman Catholic Church. 

Bay State Lodge No. 418 of the Loyal Orange League. 

Arlington Finance Club, an important factor in adding to 
the business section of the town as well as responsible for 
opening the Addison street section for residences and build- 
ing Park terrace block. 

Twenty-one Associates, owners of Studio Building and Asso- 
ciates' Block. 

Tennis Club at Arlington Heights. 

Arlington Heights Tree Protective Association. 

Circle Associates at Arlington Heights. 

Men's Club (unsectarian) meeting in the vfestry of Orthodox 
Congregational Church. 

Men's Club of the Universalist Church. 

Golden Rule Lodge, No. 57, United Order of Independent Odd 
Ladies. 



CELEBRATION 

OF THE 

ONE-HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THK 

INCORPORATION OF THE TOWN OF ARLINGTON 



UNDER an article inserted in the Town Warrant for the 
annual March meeting of 1906, the Town passed the 
following vote: 

Voted: That the following named fifteen citizens be a com- 
mittee to make all necessary arrangements for the proper obser- 
vance of the one-hundredth anniversar}' of the incorporation of the 
Town : 

Hon. John Q. A. Brackett Hon. James P. Parmenter 

Hon. James A. Bailey, Jk. William G. Peck 

E. Nelson Blake Warren A. Peirce 

Edwin S. Farmer Harry G. Porter 

Hon. John H. Hardy Hon. Warren W. Rawson 

Joseph C. Holmes Thomas J. Robinson 

Charles S. Parker Charles T. Scannell 

George Y. Wellington 

At a subsequent town meeting, this committee was given 
authority to add to its members, and elected the following addi- 
tional members of the committee: 

S. Frederick Hicks Walter Mooers 

Rev. Harry F. Fister. 

On April 11, 1906, the committee organized by the choice of 
Hon. John Q. A. Brackett as chairman and Thomas J. Robinson 
as secretary. 

823 



324 Town of Arlington 

Inasmuch as the Act to divide the Town of Cambridge and 
to incorporate the Westerly Parish therein as a separate town 
l)y the name of West Cambridge, being Chap. 95 of the Acts of 
1807, which was signed Feb. 27, 1807, took effect on June 1, 
1807, it was voted that the celebration be held June 1, 1907. 

The following sub-committees were appointed: 

COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION OF HISTORY OF THE TOWN. 

Warren A. Peirce Harry G. Porter 

jCharles S. Parker James P. Parmenter 

James A. Bailey, Jr. 

COMMITTEE ON COST OF CELEBRATION. 

John H. Hardy James A. Bailey, Jr. 

Edwin S. Farmer 

COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC MEETING. 

James A. Bailey, Jr. Joseph C. Holmes 

James P. Parmenter 

COMMITTEE ON PARADE 

Warren W. Rawson Charles T. Scannell 

E. Nelson Blake 

COMMITTEE ON DECORATIONS. 

Warren A. Peirce E. Nelson Blake 

William G. Peck. 

The sub-committee on parade was authorized to enlarge its 
number, and appointed thirty citizens representing various in- 
terests of the town as additional members of this sub-committee. 

Frequent meetings of the committee were held, and all the 
proposed features of the celebration were thoroughly discussed . 
At the November meeting, the Town approj^riated $2500 to be 
expended under the direction of the committee for the proper 
observance of the Centennial Anniversary of the Incorporation 
of the Town. At the meeting in March, 1907, the Town made a 



Past and Present 325 



further appropriation of S600 for the same purpose. Of the 
amount appropriated by the Town, $800 was appropriated by 
the committee for the pubhcation of a Town History, the same 
to be paid to Charles S. Parker under a contract which was duly 
entered into between Mr. Parker and the committee; the sum of 
$500 was appropriated for the purpose of a public meeting; $300 
for decorations; $1300 for parade; and $200 for incidentals. 

The principal features of the proposed celebration are as 
follows: 

1. The publication of a Town History. 

2. A l)anquet and public meeting to be held in a tent erected 
on the Town House site. His Excellenc}^ Curtis Guild, Jr., 
Governor of the Commonwealth, and Hon. Samuel W. McCall, 
member of Congress from this District, will deliver speeches. 
Prof. Arthur W. Peirce will deliver an historical address. 

3. All pul^lic buildings will be properly decorated. 

4. There will be a parade with Hon. Warren W. Rawson as 
Chief ^Marshal. There will be in line several bands and drum 
corps, two companies of militia, Francis Goul.i Post 36, G. A. R., 
Charles V. Marsh Camp 45, 8. of V., the fire department, high- 
Avay department, and trades department, a market gardener's 
department, and floats carrying school children. 

5. Religious meetings in the churches to be arranged by the 
pastors. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Adams, Henry S 7 

Adams house, description of . . 194 

Ahern, George E 7 

Alewife Brook, new bridge at . . 119 

Alewife Brook, old ford at . . . 166 

Alewife Brook, polhitioii of . . . 150 
Apartment houses, first one 

erected 153 

Aqueduct Comiiany, spring, loca- 
tion of 286 

Arlington Adroaitc, eslablishetl . 138 
Arlingto7i Advocate, <iuarter-cen- 

tennial of 161 

Arlington, population of in 1807 . 65 

Arlington Heights Baptist Church 225 

Arlington Heights Land Companj- 86 

April 19, 1775, burying victims of 188 
April 19, 1775, capture of Lord 

Percy's su^iply train 183 

April 19, 1775, communion ser- 
vice stolen 95,186 

April 19, 1775, incident of ... 192 

April 19, 1775, incident of . . . 195 
April 19, 1775, number killed and 

wounded 186 

April 19, 1875, mottos used at 

centennial 141 

April 19, 1775, prisoners captured 183 
April 19, 1775, single grave for 

victims of 189 

April 19, 1775, story of by British 

officer 185 

April 19, 1775, tragedy at .lason 

Ru.ssell house 184 

April 19, 1875, centennial com- 
mittee for 140 

Australian ballot law accepted. . 158 

Bailej', James A 155 

Bailey, James A., Jr., chosen 

senator 161 

Baptist Church (First) sketch of 216-25 

Baptist Church, members of 1780 218 
Baptist pastors, list of . . . 224-25 

Baptist Society, legacy to in 1816 222 
Baptist Society offers to rent 
church or vestry for town 

meetings Ill 



PAGE 

Belmont, incorporation of. . . . 120 
Bethel Lodge, I. O. O. F., charter 

members of 308 

Bethel Lodge, No. 12, I. O. O. F., 

137, 172,308 

Black Horse Tavern, guests at . . 181 

Blake, E. Nelson 159, 261 

Boat Club, history of 311 

Boat Club, incorporation of . . . 311 

Boat Club successor to Yacht Club 312 
Boston & Maine R. R. acquire 
stock of Arlington-Lexington 

branch 80 

Bowman, Lieut. Solomon .... 193 
Bogs and marsh lands, elimina- 
tion of 88 

Bradshaw, Anna, her bequest . . 232 
Bradshaw, Anna, residence on 

Pleasant street 45 

Bradshaw hovise, legend of . . . 44 
Brackett, Hon. John Q. A., elected 

governor 157 

Brackett, John Q. A., no-liccnsc 

address by 1 46 

Brackett, Gov. J. (^. A., reception 

to 157 

Brighton bridge, support of . . . 60 
Broadway, reconstruction of . . 166 
Brooks, William S., first post- 
master 82 

Brown, Deacon, stage coach run by 77 

Buildings, inspector of, appointed 168 

Bull's Creek ... 18 

Bullock, Governor, reception to . 128 

Burying ground, land for .... 37 

Burying ground, school building in 253 

lousiness enterprises in 1837 ... 73 



Car fare, reduction of 160 

Cartwright, Cuff, and British 

officer 197 

Charlestown, annexation of i)or- 

tion of 74 

Charlestown and Cambridge, boun- 
dary line between 36 

Civil War, expense to Arlington 

during 202 



321 



328 



Index 



PACK 

Civil War veterans, monument 

to 154 

Civil War veterans, graves of in 

1906 205 

Contents, table of 13-16 

Cotting Academ>- 257 

Cotting High School 260 

Cotting, William 171 

Colonial buildings standing in 

1907 87 

Colonial currencj^, depreciation of 52 

Committee of Safety, meeting of. 179 

Committee of Safety 181 

Committee of Twenty-one ... 164 
Cook, Ephraim, gives land to 

Baptist Society 221 

Cooke, Capt. George, builds mill . 19 

Cooke, Capt. George, homestead of 20 

Cooke, Rev. Samuel, biography' of 42 

Cooke, Rev. Samuel, homestead of 41 

Cooper Tavern, men killed in . . 185 

Cooperative Bank 157 

Crosby, Josiah 156 

Curfew, first ringing of in 1837. . 73 
Currency, depreciation of in 1780 52 
Cutter famih', mill privileges of . 23 
Cutter, William, choir master, 1775 54 
Cutter, William and Mary, monu- 
ment to 72 

Cutter, William and Mar^-, school 

fund 260 

Cutter, William R . 5 

Damon, Rev. David 211 

Damon, Samuel G 154 

Dexter, Jonathan M 267 

District Nursing Association . . 319 
Dorchester Heights, Capt. Adams' 

company at 190 

Drill Club and its purpose . . . 203 

Durgin brothers, ice men .... 289 

Easton, John A 159 

Early settlers, homes of .... 26-8 

Electricity substituted for gas . . 160 

Enterpri.se No. Four 274 

Equipment fund of 1861 still use- 
ful 207 

Eureka fire engine 274 

Farmer, Elbridge, endowment of 

library by 270 

Fessenden, Ichabod, mill privilege 33 

Field drivers, duties of 62 

Field, John 104,156 

Finance Block 159 

First Parish Church, auction sale 

of 54 

First Parish Church Covenant 214 



PAGIC 

First Parish Church, first stove in 70 

First Parish Church, leaders in . 214 

First Parish Church, ministers of 215 
First Parish Church, new building 

for '. 54 

First Parish Church, original mem- 
bers of 40 

First Parish Church, 150th anni- 
versary of 213 

First Parish Church in Menotoniy, 

petition for 3.5 

First Parish Unitarian Church 209-16 

First National Bank of Arlington 159 
Fire alarm system, introduction 

of . . . ." 158 

Fire Department, description of 278-9 
Fire Department, history of . . 270-9 
Fire Department, horses bought 

for 277 

Fire engines bought 113 

Fire fighting implements bought . 70 

Fire wardens, equipment of . . . 271 

Firemen's Relief Association . . 279 

Fish preservers, duties of ... . 71 

Fiske, Rev. Thaddeus, homestead 45 
Fiske, Rev. Thaddeus, biographv 

of ". 46- 

Flagstaff, erection at the Center . 121 

Flags, schools supplied with . . 158 

Foresters of America 320 

Fowle's Arlington Mills .... 301 
Fowle, Frederick E., postmaster, 

83, 158, 160' 

Fowle, John, postmaster .... 82 
Francis Gould Po,st36, G. A. R. 172, 203 

Friendship No. One 272 

Gage, Addison, Ice Companj- . . 288 

Gambling, enforcing laws against 70 

Gates at railroad crossing ... 152 

General Court, representatives to 173 

Golf Club 321 

Good Intent fire engine .... 273 

Grade crossings, abolishing some 165 

Greene, Rev. Thomas 222 

Grocers, four generations of . . . 292 

Hardy, John H 153 

Health, Board of, chosen .... 160 
Hearse house, town buys First 

Parish 71 

Hedge, Rev. F. H., installed . . 211 

Higgins, WiUiam D 159 

High school grade established . . 258 

High service water plant installed 136 

Hill, Isaac, Governor of N. H. . 195 
Hiram Lodge F. and A. M., sketch 

of 172, 303 



Index 



329 



l'A<iE 

Hiram I>oilgi% F. and A. M.. cliarUT 

nienibors 304 

Historical Society, skctcli of. . . 314 

Historical Socio'ty 162 

Hoitt, Alfred I)., pcstmaster . . S3 

Hook anil Ladder Truck .... 276 

Horse car line to Bo.ston opened 117 
Hose carriages displace hand 

engine 276 

Hose Hou-ses supplied witli bells . 277 

Howard No. Two, fate of ... . 275 

Howard & Davis, v. Hunninian . 275 

Ice cilttins;, machiiierv introdviced 

for 290 

Ice harvesting on Spy Pond . . 288 

Ice tool making 92 

Illustrations, list of 9-11 

Improvement Association ... 152 
Indian wars, Menotomy men in . 178 
Incorporation, committee to se- 
cure act of 60 

Incorporation of town, celebration 

of 64 

Ingalls, ('apt . Albert S. and his 

men 200 

Jason street section, opening of . 87 

July 4, 1842, celebration of . . . 75 
June 17, 1867, celebration, notables 

at 129 

Juvenile military company ... 65 

Know-Xothiiig Party 114 

Ladies' Aid Society 202 

Lake Water Company disposes of 

privileges 135 

Law and Order League 152 

Leadership clianged by deaths . 156 

Learnetl, Ebenezer, M.D 267 

Learned, Doctor, terms of bequest 

from 266 

Lexington and West Cambridge 

R. R., construction of . . . 79 
I/ibraries and their locations . . 265-9 

Ijibrarians, list of 268 

Lincoln's proclamation, response 

to in Arlington 2(J0 

Liquor licenses, granting same . 144 

Liquor agents, appointment of 119 

Locke, B. Delmont 169, 182 

Locke, Capt. Benjamin, and liis 

Minute-men 182 

Locke, Capt. Benjamin, sells house 

to Baptist Society 218 

Local Option law, vote under . . 145 

Looting Arlington treasury ... 169 



PACK 

Lovejov,Cununings, and his omni- 
bus " 78 

Main street renamed Massacliu- 

setts avenue 160 

Main street, straightening of . . ()9 
Market gardening, history of . . 282-5 

Market gardening, land devoted to 282 
Masonic Fraternity suspends 

meetings 304 

Massachusetts avenue, change in 

grade of 137 

May Day, 1867, celebration of. . 127 
Menotomy, anti-English senti- 
ment of 60 

Menotomy Hall, story of ... . 171 

Menotomy, population of ... . 41 

Menotomy, roads converging to . 49 

Menotomy Roj^al Arcli Chapter . 307 

Menotomy Rocks Park 88 

Menotomy, tax payers in, in 1688 24 

Medford street and first dam . . 49 

Medford street, tide mill at . . . 159 

Methodist Episcopal Church. . . 248 
Metropolitan system, Arlington 

part of 136 

Middlesex Ariueduct Company . . 286 
Middlesex Turnpike, construction 

of stopped bj' injunction . . 68 

Middlesex Turnpike, building of . 68 

Mill Brook 18 

Mill Brook on the rampage ... 153 

Mill owners' suits, compromise of 151 

Military stores, town to provide . 51 

Militia, formation of 51 

Minister, attempts to settle ... 39 

Minister, duties of old-time ... 47 

Minister, salary of in 1780 ... 52 

Minute-men, duties of 51-2 

Minute-men, capture of by flankers 184 
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, laying 

out of 75 

Mystic Ri^•er bridge, Medford in- 
dicted for not building .... 49 
Mystic street extended through 

Russell land 107 

Mystic street, road to Woburn. . 49 

Mj^stic street, fine estates on . . 106 
Munroe Tavern, meeting place of 

Hiram Lodge 303 

Nichols, William, first Fourth of 

July orator 64 

Olive Branch No. Three 274 

Orthodox Congregational Church, 

list of deacons 238 

Orthodox Congregational Church, 

members of 235 



330 



Index 



PAGE 

Orthodox Congregational Church, 

pastors of 237 

Park avenue Congregational 

Church 244 

Patriots' Day, celebration of . . 160 

Parmenter, James P 5 

Parmenter, William E 155 

Pattee, Jesse P 172 

Peck, Abel G 104 

Peirce, Abner, and his country store 91 
Peirce, Capt. Solomon, and his 

story 192 

Pleasant street as it was fifty 

years ago 104- 



Police signals, installation of 
Political historj^ scraps of . 

Pond, Robert W 

Population, 1810, 1S20, 1830 

Population, 1840 

Population, 1850, 1855 . . . 
Population 1855, 1860, 1865 
Population, 1865, 1870, 1875 
Population, 1875, 1880, 1885 
Population, 1885, 1890, 1895 
Population, 1895, 1900, 1905 
Postage, rates of in 1807 . . 
Postmaster, first appointment 
Post office, first in Arlington 
Post office locations, list of . 
Postmasters, changes in . . 
"Pound" location and building 

of town 

Precinct, list of officers of 
Prescott, Edwin R., postmaster 
Proctor, Abel R., postmaster 
Public Works, Board of . . 
Public Library, growth of 
Public Library, gifts to . . 
Pump, removal of town . . 



of 



170 

198 

7 

59 

73 

102 

115 

123 

149 

157 

164 

81 

81 

81 

81-3 

160 

62 

57-8 

82 

82 

170 

268 

269-70 

. 158 



Queen of Massachusetts .... 178 

Quotas of Arlington, 1861-1865 . 199 

Revolution, last survivor of . . . 194 

Rolfe, John, buys Cooke's inill . 21 

Russell Hall leased by Masons . 306 

Railroad, surveying for route of . 78 

"Russell's Store," story of ... 292 

Russell, Jason, house removed . 194 
Reynold's Red Ribbon Reform 

Club 145 

Representative Districts formed . 116 

Rebekah degree, institution of . 309 

Rawson, Warren 166 

Rawson, Warren W 170 

Revolution, poverty following War 

of '. 53 



r.vGio 

Railroad station, removal of . . 153 
River street bridge over Mystic 

River " . . 114 

Revolution, men serving in . . 192-4 

Robinson, Thomas J 6 

Ru.ssell Park 122 

Russell, J. Brooks 96, 163 

Salary of pastor in 1791 .... 222 

Samaritan Society 231 

Savings Bank, Five Cent .... 137 

Saw factory, site of 68 

Seal, adoption of town 134 

Seats in first church assigned by 

committee 38 

Selectmen, list of, 1807-1907 . . 173-4 
School Board, citizens serving prior 

to 1807 . 255-6 

School Districts, readjustment of 64 
School buildings in earlier days . 252-6 
School Committee, list of 1827- 

1907 263-5 

School Committee, Selectmen 

serve as 62 

Schoolhouse built in 1746, cost of. 250 

Schoolhouses built of brick . . . 258 

Schoolhouse of 1693 250 

Schoolhouse, use of by church 7 . 251 

Schoolhouse, site of first .... 25 

Schools, history of 250-65 

Schools, maintenance of in 1906 . 262 
School rooms, adornment of by 

Woman's Club 317 

Schools, text-books for, furnished 

by town 154 

School teachers, salaries of in 1811 254 

Schouler, John 105 

Schouler Print AVorks 296 

Soles, William, saw grinding in- 
vention 298 

Southwell, William, saw grinding 

invention 298 

Shattuck, Isaac, Jr., postmaster . 82 

Sherburne Block 161 

Schwamb Brothers 291 

Schwamb, Theodore Co 291 

Silver service, gift of to First 

Parish 40 

Singing Society of 1805 .... 54 
Singing Society, motto of . . . 55 
Smith, Rev. Samuel A., monu- 
ment to 212 

Spring Valley, boathouse at . . 311 
Spring Vallev, powder house at 

foot of . ". 63 

Spy Pond Water Company ... 135 

Spy Pond, yachting on .... . 106 

Squaw-Sachem and her property 178 

St. Agnes' Church 239 



Index 



331 



PAGE 

St. Agnes' Church, enlargeineiit of 

in 1900 241 

St. John's (Episcopal) Church . . 241 

St. John's Church, growth of . . 243 
St. Paul's Cemetery, controversy 

over 152 

State election, first vote in . . . 198 

Stone crusher, purchase of first . 147 

Street building, new plan of . . 146 

Streets, first official naming of . 84 

Street lighting made general . . 120 

Streets, list of accepted .... 85 

Studio Building 161 

Sucker Brook, normal flow of . . 136 

Survev, Board of 164 

Swan's Block 144 

Symmes, Stephen, biographical 

sketch of 167 

Symmes Hospital, provision for . 166 

Symmes Hospital, trustees of . . 167 

Thanksgiving services, inaugura- 
tion of 151 

Tide gates, removal of from Ale- 
wife Brook 166 

Tornado of 1851, description of . 108 

Tornado, curious effects of . . . 109 
Tornado of 1871, church steeples 

demolished by 132 

Train-bands and their duties . . 50 
Training field and its uses . . . 63, 69 
Transportation, jaroviding new 

means of 76-81 

Treasurers, list of, 1807-1907 . . 175 

Trinity Baptist Church 246 

Trowbridge, John T 155 

Tuttle, William H. H 157 

Taxes, discount on abolished . . 168 
Twentieth Century watch night 

service 214 

Town Clerks, list of. 1807-1907 . 175 

Town Hall, dedication of ... . 112 

Town Hall, cost of building ... 112 
Town Hall, purchase of new site 

for 164 

Town Hall, various sites for 

offered for sale by owners . . Ill 

Town officers, first board of . . . 62 
Town officers, change in modes of 

electing 169 

Town scales, removal of .... 161 

Township rights, granting of . . 59 
Township rights, refusal of by 

General Court 41 

Tablets designating historic sites 141 

Taverns, the old-time 50 

Taxes, asses.sors of 1807-1907 . 174-5 

Taxes, resisting paj'ing church. . 219 



TAGE 

Unitarian Chib, formation of . . 213 

Universalist Church, First . . . 226 

Universalist Church, new organ for 230 

Universalist Church, remodeling of 230 

Universalists in Menotomv . . . 226 



Valuation, shrinkage in .... 150 
Veteran Association merged in 

Post 36 204 

Veteran Firemen's Association. . 279 



War equipment fund, disposal of . 205 

War of 1812, hero of 195 

War of 1812, trouble following . 67 
Watertown road, now Pleasant 

street 24 

Water supply, authority to retain 

sources 166 

Water Works, cost of introduction 201 
Water works reservoir, capacity of 136 
Washington's Birthdaj'', celebra- 
tion of Feb. 22, 1863 122 

Welch & Griffith's Saw Factory 32, 297 

Wellington street, opening of . . 86 
West Cambridge Light Infantry 

Company 195 

West Cambridge renamed Arling- 
ton 123 

Whittemore, Mrs. Almira T., de- 
scribes Massachusetts a^'enue 
as it was sixty years ago . . 90-110 

Whittemore, Amos, postmaster . 82 
Whittemore, Amos, inscription on 

tomb 295 

Whittemore Card Factory, 1799- 

1812 "... 67, 294 

Whittemore, Miss Edith .... 6 

Whittemore, Henrj', postmaster . 82 

Whittemore, Samuel 187 

Winchester, electric car line to . 161 

Woburn, road to 22 

Woman's Club in local politics. . 309 

Woman's Club, sketch of ... . 316 
Woman's Christian Temperance 

Union 14.5 

Women, first vote in elections by 151 

Wood, William E ' . 155 

Wood, Cyrus 299 

Wood, Williami T., and ice tool 

industry 299 

Wvman, Abner P., ice tools, fac- 
tory of 92 

Wyman, Abner P., pioneer in ice 

tool business 299 



Yacht Club organized 



303 



^^ 211 19©f 



